out a large daylight raid. The 4th Brigade who were on
our right were to do this. A couple of nights before the raid was
planned for, the Battalion Scout officer, with a couple of men, were
scouting around No Man's Land when they encountered a strong German
patrol. Our fellows had to drop back to our trench but the officer was
hit and it was believed taken prisoner by the Germans. As he had some
important papers the plans were all changed. So much in fact that we
knew nothing about them ourselves. We got word at last that the raid
was to take place at 4.30 this certain afternoon. Exactly on the
second our artillery trench mortars and machine guns opened up. We
just showered them with liquid fire shells and gas shells. Well, it
was a wonderful night. The 26th Battalion on our left went over,
entered his trench and bombed dugouts in the front line, for we were
not taking any chances on Fritz having a surprise waiting for us. Our
men all returned and we thought everything was over and that we would
be relieved the next day. I guess Fritz thought the same. At seven the
next morning I had a message handed me telling me that my men were not
to stand down until I was notified later, as the Brigade on our left
were going to carry out a raid. Again we pounded Cain out of him. Our
men went over and our artillery formed a box barrage so that they
could go in the trenches secure from a German counter attack. They had
great success, brought back 100 prisoners besides what were killed. We
suffered very light.

After our boys came back, Fritz, thinking that we still held it
completed the work of knocking his trench to pieces which we had
started. We were relieved the next day and marched to a large mining
town called Bruay. I was there only about four days when I was sent
down the line to qualify for a commission and arrived back on the
morning of the ninth and went up the line to the front trenches that
night, along with Lt. Col. Bauld.

After a month of rest at Bruay, the Battalion left for a training camp
where for over a month the Battalion, in conjunction with the
remainder of the 2nd Division, trained on ground marked out showing
the different communication and main line trenches then held by the
Huns and which were to be our objectives. This is made possible by the
accurate photography from aeroplanes used for that purpose.

At last the time drew near. A week was all that was left before the
great day was to arrive and by th