e 51st Division in the front line between Hermies and
Boursies. A month later it side-stepped northwards, relieving the 25th
Division in the Lagnicourt sector. The period up to the 21st March was
one of steady work on defences, but without special incident, except a
gas-shell attack on the 71st Brigade, which caused a certain amount of
casualties.

During this period Infantry Brigades were reduced to three battalions
each--the 9th Suffolk Regiment, 8th Bedford Regiment, and 14th Durham
Light Infantry being disbanded between 1st and 16th February. Shortly
afterwards the three Machine-gun Companies and the Divisional
Machine-gun Company were organized into the 6th Machine-gun Battalion,
under the command of Lt.-Col. Rosher, D.S.O., late commanding 14th
D.L.I.

Some description of the ground and defensive organization of the
Division will not be out of place here. The front held by the Division
was generally on a forward slope opposite the villages of Queant and
Pronville.

No Man's Land averaged three-quarters of a mile in width. The whole
area was downland, and very suitable for the action of tanks. The
position lay astride a succession of well-defined broad spurs and
narrow valleys (like the fingers of a partially opened hand), merging
into the broad transverse valley which separated the British line
from the two villages above-mentioned. All the advantages of ground
lay with the defence, and it seemed as if no attack could succeed,
unless by the aid of tanks. A large portion of the front line--notably
the valleys--was sown with 2-in. trench-mortar bombs with instantaneous
fuses, which would detonate under the pressure of a wagon but not of a
man's foot. In addition five anti-tank 18-pounder guns were placed in
positions of vantage. The wire was very broad and thick. The position
would, indeed, have been almost impregnable had there been sufficient
time to complete it, and had there been separate troops for
counter-attack.

The ground was a portion of that wrested from the enemy in the Cambrai
offensive of November-December 1917, but had only improvised trenches.
A month's hard frost in January had militated against digging, and
though there were a complete front trench and reserve trench, the
support trenches hardly existed, and dug outs were noticeable by their
absence. The front was 4,500 yards in extent, the three brigades in
line--18th on right, 71st in centre, 16th on left--on approximately
equal frontages.