done sound work, and had had a big hand in the creation of the fair name
of the Fleur de Lys. We were pleased later to see his name in the
honours list for a D.S.O. in recognition of his work with the 7th
Manchesters.

On that day the battalion marched to Winizeele and there we were joined
by the new C.O. A sort of kinship sprang up when it was discovered that
he had been wounded at the landing on Gallipoli with the Worcesters of
the famous 29th division.

NIEUPORT.

It was now apparent that our destination was north, one more step in the
direction of Blighty, towards which we had constantly moved since
leaving El Arish. But it was as near as we ever should get until the
final crossing. We were to join that small, isolated batch of the
British Army which had taken over the coastal sector from the French
with such high hopes in the middle of the year. Ever since the first
furious German onslaught in 1914, when the Kaiser had come in person to
see his myrmidons seize the coast road to the Channel Ports, and when
they met the wonderful defence of the Belgian and French troops
culminating in the flooding of the Yser lowlands, the Nieuport sector
had settled down to a quiet front.

The intention was for the British Fourth Army, under General Rawlinson
to steal quietly in, and on an appointed day to startle our friend the
enemy by a quick turning movement along the coast, which, worked in
conjunction with the Ypres offensive would free Ostend and Zeebrugge. A
far-reaching conception, but unfortunately doomed from the first by its
over-importance. The Hun had found out. Someone had told him there were
British soldiers on the coast, so he stampeded--not in the way we should
have liked but in a disastrous manner for ourselves. It had been part of
the scheme to preserve the secrecy of this movement by not bringing up
the guns when the infantry came, for there is nothing like gun positions
for "giving the game away." So soon as the German knew, however, that
the British had arrived, up came his guns very quickly, for he was well
aware that they had not come for a rest, especially in view of other
activity near Ypres.

The 1st division had taken over the Coastal sector with the 32nd
division in front of Nieuport on their right. On the coast the line ran
through the sandhills on the east side of the Yser, while on the right
of this the ground was very low lying and was largely flooded from the
five canals which converge nea