but we did a forced march that day of eighteen miles with full packs
up--eight of them without a "breather." This may not sound much, but
our boys were as nearly physically perfect as it was possible for men
to be, and yet when we arrived at camp we left a third of them on the
road.

We went into billets at Sailly, within five miles of the firing-line,
where we found the civilian population going about their avocations as
though war were a thousand miles away. There were plenty of ruins and
even great holes in the streets that showed the Hun had not only the
power, but the will, to send these death-dealing missiles among the
women and children still living there. I thought the boys were too
tired from their march to want to look 'round the town, but after "hot
tea" had been served out, they were like new men, and went out to
explore the place, as though they merely had had a morning stroll. Hot
tea is to the Australian what whiskey is to the Scotchman, his best
"pick me up."

CHAPTER XIX

THE BATTLE OF FLEURBAIX . . .

Next morning it was "going in" with a vengeance. We did not enter the
same trenches where I had been a few days previously, but about a mile
farther south. These trenches were our "home" for over three months,
so let me try and describe how they were built and looked to us on that
day of entry. In this part of the line, near the borders of Belgium,
you cannot dig down, the soil is so marshy, so the trenches are what is
known as _breastwork_. They are built _up_ about six feet from the
level of the ground, a solid wall of sand-bags, ten to twenty feet
thick. This will stand the hit of all but the heaviest shells, but is
an unmistakable target if the enemy artillery have observation at all.
The support and front line trenches were divided every two hundred
yards, by communication-trenches, built in the same way, except that
the communication-trench had _two_ sides. These communication-trenches
were distinguished by such names as "Pinney's Ave.," "V. C. Ave.,"
which latter was supposed to be built on the spot where Michael O'Leary
won the first Victoria Cross of the war. Others were called "Bond
Street," "Brompton Ave.," and "Mine Ave."

Later on my brigade held the length of trench that included all these,
from Mine Ave. to Bond Street, over one thousand yards; but for the
battle and the first ten days we only held about three hundred yards,
using the three communication-trenches--Pi