26

III ENTER BEST-DUNKLEY 49

IV MILLAIN 57

V THE MARCH 63

VI THE GENERAL'S SPEECH 77

VII THE VALE OF ACQUIN 81

VIII BACK TO THE SALIENT 103

IX BILGE TRENCH 113

X THE RAMPARTS 128

XI MUSTARD OIL 136

XII THE CITY AND THE TRENCHES 146

XIII RELIEF 164

XIV WATOU 168

XV THE DAYS BEFORE 179

XVI THE BATTLE OF YPRES 187

APPENDICES

I MURRAY AND ALLENBY 227

II THE INFANTRY AT MINDEN 229

III GENERAL RAWLINSON AND OSTEND 230

IV EDWARD III AND THE ORDER OF THE GARTER 231

V GOLDFISH CHATEAU 233

AT YPRES WITH BEST-DUNKLEY

CHAPTER I

OFF TO THE FRONT

I had been to France before--in 1916, during the Battle of the
Somme--but not as an officer; in 1916 I was a private in the Royal
Fusiliers, and I had received orders to return to "Blighty" in order to
proceed to an officer cadet battalion at Gailes, in Ayrshire, before I
had been able to see what a front-line trench was like. So this, then,
was my first experience of war--my "baptism of fire." I had seen and
heard those magnificent bombardments up the line in 1916, and had gazed
with awestruck admiration upon the strange horizon far away from my
tents at Boulogne and Etaples, wondering what it must be like to be
amongst it all, and expecting to be amongst it all in the course of a
day or two; but, as I have already observed, I was recalled to England,
and was not destined to be amongst it until the following summer. But
now, at last, the experience, the great adventure to which I had been
looking forward so long, was