lion of the
81ieme Regiment Territoriale. Accordingly very early in the morning of
that day the Battalion marched to Monchiet in sleet and rain under cover
of darkness along roads which in daylight were exposed to the view of the
enemy, and on arrival the short day was spent in endeavouring to get dry.
Monchiet later became the location of the transport lines and
Quartermaster's store.

WAILLY.

Having sent an advance party to General Xardel's headquarters at Beaumetz
to effect liaison, and to meet French guides, the Battalion paraded
towards evening, left Monchiet, picked up the guides en route and marched
to Wailly. The day had been one of blizzards and the night of the relief
was black and wet. Added to these circumstances was the difficulty of
understanding the directions of the Frenchmen, the Battalion's knowledge
of their language being not very extensive. Towards midnight, thoroughly
drenched, hungry and weary after a heavy day, the men were ultimately put
in their proper stations, some in the village and others in the trenches.

From the appearance of the houses Wailly had been a prosperous farming
village lying within a short distance of Arras. Agricultural implements of
the latest manufacture were in evidence, and these could only have been
bought by peasants with some capital. This village was to be the
Battalion's home for the next five months. The Battalion first did a month
alternating in position between the front line and the village. For some
days while in the front line the Battalion was in touch with the 27ieme
Regiment d'Infanterie, which had a sentry post in its area composed of men
from one of the companies who readily fraternised with the fantassins.
This regiment belonged to a division of the French Active Army, and in
consequence its efficiency was of a very high order. Nowhere had anyone
seen trenches so well revetted and so neatly constructed as those occupied
by this French regiment. The trenches stood out in marked contrast to
those actually taken over by the Battalion, whose former occupants, the
French Territorials, had left them in a very bad condition.

The trenches had not been revetted or duckboarded, and during the first
month of the Battalion's occupation there was a good deal of snow, and
when this melted the sides of the trenches commenced to crumble, making
them very muddy at the bottom. In consequence of this mud they became
almost impassable. For the men doing trench duty t