Lt. Sievewright had rejoined us at Alexandria on the
boat, he having been invalided to England from Gallipoli. Lt. G. Harris
left to take charge of a Divisional Bombing School, and ended his
service with the battalion, although later he became the Brigade
Intelligence Officer, when we saw a good deal of him again.
After three days the battalion moved back to Liercourt and there the
work of refitting commenced. We had much to learn about organisation and
methods of warfare as practised in France, and vigorous training was
commenced at once.
Major-General Sir W. Douglas left the division, and his successor,
Major-General Mitford, lost no time in getting us ready for the line.
Just at this time, and whilst Col. Cronshaw and other officers and
N.C.O's. were up in the line for instruction, the German retirement on
the Somme and the Ancre to the Hindenburg line took place. As soon as
brigades were fitted out they lost no time in moving forward into the
war zone, commencing with the Lancs. Fusiliers. At the end of March the
127th brigade entrained for Chuignes and from there the 7th marched
forward to Dompierre, which had been the scene of such heavy fighting
by the French in 1916. We thus got our first impressions of the
devastated area of France, and I am sure there was not a mind in the
battalion into which these impressions did not sink deep. The misery of
it was by no means diminished when we arrived at our destination, for
accommodation had to be found amidst impossible ruins and in the
scattered half-destroyed dug-outs amongst the trenches which
criss-crossed the village.
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