e Germans never had a chance of discovering the
ruse. The same night at 3 A.M. fifty cylinders of gas were projected
over the German lines. This gas attack cost the Germans dear, probably
more than the two raids, for the next day they were seen burying or
removing large numbers of the men caught in the gas cloud. My own
observers reported 200 gas casualties and the total number reported
reached a figure between 300 and 400. Gas casualties were easily
distinguished, as the Germans removed them in blankets slung between
two men on a pole. Besides, as it happened, the gas cloud drifted
north and caught the Germans during a relief nearly half a mile away
from the scene of the two raids. For example, the Germans were burying
dead all day in the neighbourhood of St. Roharts Factory, which is
some distance from Cherisy. The German report of this operation showed
that they had failed entirely to realise the nature of the attack. And
a similar raid was repeated shortly afterwards near Monchy-le-Preux
with great success. Our aeroplanes swooped down to 300 feet and took
photographs of the first raid from that height. And I was lucky enough
to secure some very interesting copies of these photographs, which
showed our men crossing No Man's Land and entering the German
trenches.

I got my fourth leave, ten days, about August 30 and travelled home
via Boulogne and Folkestone. It was the first leave that took me out
of the line, which it did for about four days. All the previous
leaves had occurred during Divisional rests.

We were relieved in these trenches by the 51st Division about the
beginning of October, and the 50th Division moved out of the line to
the neighbourhood of Courcelles-le-Compte for a short rest.

Before the relief took place Brigadier-General Rees had to leave us
much to every one's regret. He was taken ill with a distressing
internal complaint, which necessitated his return for a while to
England. He was succeeded by Brigadier-General E.P.A. Riddell, C.M.G.,
D.S.O.

General Riddell had at one time been Adjutant of the 7th N.F., that is
to say, long before the war; and he knew all about Alnwick and the
people there. During the war he had been instructing officers at
Sandhurst for a time, and later on he commanded a battalion of the
Cambridgeshires at the Battle of the Somme. This battalion succeeded
in capturing the Schwaben Redoubt, near Thiepval. Later on he had seen
service in the battle still raging in Flan