re they were and slept. Fortunately it did not rain.
A few tents came up very late, and in the darkness they could not be
pitched, but they were spread out and thrown over the men as they lay
sleeping on the ground. Fires could not be lighted as the enemy aeroplanes
would have used them as aiming marks. In the morning the Battalion on
awaking found it was just outside Pas, in what was called Beaucamp Ravine.
Here it remained for two days, and then moved to Henu, where the men
pitched a camp in a field, and there the Battalion remained for a little
over a fortnight. But it was no rest camp. The weather was very bad and
the ground became wet and sodden. Every alternate day large working
parties, which consumed almost all the available men, were detailed for
work on the rear lines of defence, that were being hastily constructed, in
view of the imminence of a fresh enemy offensive. On the intervening days
training took place. There was a thirty yards' range in a ravine just in
the rear of the camp, where some very interesting competitions took place.
Rifle sections were pitted against Lewis gun sections and it was found
that, in some platoons a rifle section of eight men was able to get as
many shots on the target as the Lewis gun, and it was noticed incidentally
that after two hundred rounds the Lewis gun became far too hot to handle.
It was a much over-rated weapon, and was only effective in the hands of
highly trained men.

Several reconnaissances were made by the officers while at Henu. The
forward area was visited again and again. Defence schemes were studied and
prepared, but these tended to become a little too complex, and had it been
necessary to put them into operation something would surely have gone
wrong.

The morale at this time was low. The extent of the losses on the 5th and
2nd Army fronts were known. The enemy was using British 60-pounder guns
against the area occupied by the Battalion, but as the enemy gunners did
not thoroughly understand how to set the fuses, the shells were all blind.
The Germans seemed to be able to advance whenever they wished, whereas the
British had miserably failed at Ypres the last year. The men were not in
very good fettle owing to the several recent marches, and the chance of
complete victory seemed to be remote. Nevertheless there were many who
kept cheerful and intended like game cocks to fight to the last.

The first week in May the Battalion went into line at Gommecourt. Th