nto the trenches on the eastern edge of the
wood, the Cheshires continued the line to the south and for a couple
of hundred yards outside the wood, and the West Ridings were in
reserve at the back of the wood, in rear of our dug-out.

I did not like our place at all, for it seemed to me that, being so
close to the firing line, I should not be able to get out or control
the little force if there were heavy operations on; and this was
exactly what did happen.

We had been told that the 6th Cavalry Brigade was in trenches on our
left, and the 7th Infantry Brigade in ditto on our right, and that was
about all we knew of the situation.

_Nov. 6th._

Next morning there was a thick mist till 10 A.M., and I took advantage
of it to visit the trenches in detail. The left of the Cheshires was
within 40 yards of the enemy, who were hidden in the wood in front of
them, so, there being no communication trenches, we had to be fairly
careful hereabouts. But it was desperately difficult to make one's way
about, what with the fallen trees and telephone wires, and little
patches of open ground on the slopes, and long, wet, yellow grass and
tangled heather in parts, not to mention the criss-cross of trenches,
occupied and unoccupied, in all directions. Difficult enough to find
one's way in daylight, it was infinitely worse in pitch darkness. No
wonder that our reliefs had not been accomplished till nearly 3
o'clock that morning!

We were shelled pretty heavily all the morning, and two of the shells
burst so close that they covered us with dirt. Two officers--Langdale
and O'Kelly, of the West Ridings--had their legs broken by their
dug-out being blown in upon them, and three Cheshires were buried by
an exploding shell and dug out dead. Another dozen were killed or
wounded in their trenches, which were nothing like deep enough, and
could not be further deepened because of the water which lay there
only just below the ground. About twenty Cheshires were moved back to
escape the shell fire, and taken to a rather less-exposed place. At
4.30 the Bedfords reported a heavy attack on their front; but it was
confined to rifle fire, and nothing serious happened there.

The remainder of the Bedfords, under Griffith, consisting of two
strong companies, turned up at 6 P.M., and the West Ridings were taken
away from me, so that my command was now reduced to two battalions,
one rather strong (1100--just reinforced by a big fresh draft), and
the