CHAPTER IV.
Holding the Line.
EPEHY.
On April 27th, our period of fatigues ended, the 7th Manchesters marched
out of Peronne in the full panoply of war, not gaudy, but serviceable
for modern requirements and not lacking the element of weight, with the
certain knowledge that their next deeds would be accomplished "in the
presence of the enemy." The enemy of 1917 and after was not so elusive
as the Turk of the Sinai, so there was no possibility of marching on and
on and never feeling his force! That night was spent at Villers Faucon,
and next day preparations were completed for relieving the 4th East
Lancs. in the front line trenches east of Epehy. An advance party of an
officer and a few N.C.O's. per company had been sent forward to learn
dispositions and other information about the line, and the thousand and
one minute details about rations, tools, Lewis guns, water, guides,
intervals between platoons and sections, etc., etc., had all been dealt
with when we got on the move once more in the early evening.
Everyone expected to take over trenches such as we had in Gallipoli or
had read about, but we were rather staggered to find that the battalion
front was not vastly different from the outpost positions we had made on
the desert. This is explained by the fact that the front was just in
process of solidifying from the liquid state as a result of the German
recent retirement to a safe position. The enemy therefore looked calmly
down upon us from his elaborate Hindenburg system of trenches beyond
Vendhuile whilst we expanded our isolated outposts into organised
continuous lines.
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