oked like it, and we
decamped at 9.30 to a cottage half a mile back. Perhaps it is as well
that we did so, for at 9.40 a big shell arrived through the roof and
exploded in my late bedroom, tearing out the corner of the house wall
and wrecking the stable; whilst nearly at the same moment another
shell completely wrecked the house just opposite, where Ballard
(commanding 15th Brigade R.F.A.) had been spending the night. He also
had cleared out about an hour before.

Before I went I sent my senior officer, Ballard (Norfolks), down to
Givenchy to take local command over the French and English troops
there, and am glad I did so, for it introduced unity of command and
satisfaction. The Devons down there were meanwhile getting exhausted
after their long spell in the trenches; but I had no troops to relieve
them with, nor any reserve.

The "attack" did not materialize, and we had a fairly quiet afternoon,
the Germans limiting their activities to digging themselves in and
sniping perpetually.

It was an extraordinarily warm day, and we sat in the cottage with
windows and doors wide open till long after dark. An attack was made
about 10 P.M. on the French the other side of the Canal, but it was
too far off to interest us much.

_Oct. 25th._

Another lovely warm day of Indian summer. Also of many shells, some
falling pretty close to our cottage. The Germans were seen making
splendid use of the folds in the ground for driving saps and
connecting up their heads into trenches getting nearer and nearer to
our lines. And we could do nothing but shell them and snipe them as
best we could, but with little result, for artillery observation-posts
were almost impossible, and snap-shooting at an occasional head or
shovel appearing above ground produced but small results.

Three French batteries arrived during the morning and were put under
Blanchard's orders in the swampy wood behind Givenchy. Some spasmodic
attacks occurred on the trenches east of the village, and the French
lost rather heavily; for the Germans got into some of their evacuated
trenches and killed the wounded there. A speedy counter-attack,
however, drove them out again. The Devons lost two officers (Besley
and Quick) and ten men killed and thirty-eight wounded.

At 4.50 P.M. I got a message saying large columns of the enemy had
been seen by the French issuing from La Bassee and Violaines, and I
was ordered peremptorily to be ready to counter-attack at once, with