Artillery Liaison Officer who had slept peacefully through the first
concussion. He woke up then with a comical look of surprise, as if some
one were playing a joke on him. Although another shell struck the bank
at the doorway we had no more on the roof, and no casualties--only we
found that all our telephone wires had been cut. I wonder whether our
roof would have stood another direct hit! Later on in the day I filled
the holes in the roof outside with blocks of ice and frozen earth, in
fact anything I could find to act as a 'burster' in case of further
shelling. At 12 o'clock midnight, being the beginning of New Year's
Day, our artillery fired their usual reminder at the enemy. It has been
a point of honour with us to fire off all our guns as soon as possible
after the New Year came in. On the evening of January 1 we were
relieved and moved back to Brandhoek. On January 3 the Division was
taken farther back for a rest, and the Brigade marched to the district
about Watou on the French border.

Having served for two years abroad I applied for a month's leave--it
was a privilege granted to Staff Officers who needed a rest. My leave
warrant reached me on January 5, and next day I left Watou and
entrained at Poperinghe for Boulogne.

XXIX

GOOD-BYE TO THE 50TH DIVISION

When I returned to Ypres on February 8, 1918, I found that some very
drastic changes had taken place in the grouping of battalions. Instead
of four battalions to a brigade, there were now to be three; and every
division was to be provided with a Pioneer battalion. This meant that
the 50th Division, who already possessed a battalion of pioneers, had
to part with a battalion from each brigade. And these battalions would
have to be attached as pioneer battalions to other divisions who
possessed no pioneer battalion. As the junior battalion in the
Northumberlands, the 7th N.F. were selected to go from the 149th
Infantry Brigade; and their companions in misfortune were the 9th
D.L.I. and the 5th Border Regiment. Major-General Sir P.S. Wilkinson,
K.C.M.G., our Divisional Commander, was good enough to say that he was
parting with three of his best battalions.

Although I had been attached to the Staff of the 149th Infantry
Brigade since May 1916 I was included in the General Order that all
detached officers should join their respective battalions before they
left the Division. At the time this looked very hard. I had been a
specialist for over two