the Battalion's objective. We have to go to the
outpost line. Then we sent off flares to signal to the aircraft that we
had reached our objective; and then we were supposed to be digging in
and putting out wire, patrolling, and resisting counter-attacks! As a
matter of fact we sat there for a an hour or two. My two sections were
on the extreme left of the whole Brigade.

"At 11.30 the stunt was declared over and the men went home; but General
Stockwell wished to see all the officers in the Brigade. So we assembled
near the aerodrome. The General was very agreeable; he was in a most
agreeable and accommodating mood; he seemed very pleased indeed with
everything. He spoke for about twenty minutes on the operations. He is
really a brilliant speaker. He said that on the whole the advance was
carried out very well indeed, that the right was not quite so good, but
that the left was very good indeed; we kept our dressing splendidly!
Giffin and I exchanged glances of satisfaction. At the close of his
speech General Stockwell said that we must do the scheme once or twice
again, and asked the colonels (Best-Dunkley, Hindle, Heath, and
Balfour) whether 9.30 to-morrow morning would be agreeable on the
training area. Colonel Best-Dunkley said that it would do quite well;
but Colonel Heath objected that the men were all tired and would require
some sleep--would not Friday be better? 'Very well then; I'm quite
agreeable to have it on Friday; you can do what you like to-morrow,'
replied the General in a jovial tone. We were all very pleased. The
conference over we set off back. Thus ended our first 'dress rehearsal'!

"When we got back we had some lunch. Then, at 2 in the afternoon we went
to bed. At 5.30 Critchley wakened me with the information that there was
a conference of all officers at the aerodrome at 6. Allen immediately
got the 'wind up,' but I pointed out to him that even if it were
correct, which I doubted, the thing was now out of the question so far
as we were concerned; so we might as well remain in bed and get up at
our leisure. As a matter of fact, the information turned out to be
incorrect: it was merely company commanders who were required--Halstead
had gone.

"We got up for dinner at 8. Captain Andrews had then returned from
leave. When Halstead got back he was jolly glad to find that he was
relieved from the responsibilities and worries of a company commander.
But Captain Andrews is going to be second-in-command