him for the afternoon.  We went off and had a real good time at the “Faucon d’Or.”  We went out for a short drive round in the evening, and then parted.  He was obliged to get back to somewhere near Bethune that night.  The next day I was just starting off on my machine-gun work when an orderly arrived with a message for me.  The Colonel wanted to see me at headquarters.  I went along, and arriving at his house found all the company commanders, the second in command, and the Adjutant, already assembled there.

“Dirty work ahead,” I thought to myself, and went into the Colonel’s room with the others.  Enormous maps were produced, and we all stood and listened.

“We are going to make an attack,” started the Colonel, so I saw that my conjecture wasn’t far wrong.  He explained the details to us all there, and pointed out on the maps as many of the geographical features of the forthcoming “show” as he could, after which he told us that, that very afternoon, we were all to go on a motor-bus, that would come for us, down to the allotted site for the “scrap,” to have a look at the ground.  This was news, if you like:  a thunderbolt in the midst of our rural serenity.  At two o’clock the bus arrived, and we, the chosen initiated few, rattled off down the main street of the village and away to the scene of operations.  Where it was I won’t say (cheers from Censor), but it took us about an hour to get there.  We left the motor-bus well back, and walked about a couple of miles up roads and communication trenches until we reached a line of trenches we had never seen before.  A wonderful set of trenches they were, it seemed to us; beautifully built, not much water about, and nice dug-outs.  The Colonel conferred with several authorities who had the matter in hand, and then, pointing out the sector in front which affected us, told us all to study it to the best of our ability.  I spent the time with a periscope and a pair of binoculars drinking in the scene.  It’s difficult to get a good view of the intervening ground between opposing lines of trenches in the day time, when one’s only means of doing so is through a periscope.  Night is the time for this job, when you can go in front and walk about.  This ground which we had come to see was completely flat, and one had to put a periscope pretty high over the parapet to see the sort of thing it was.  It was no place to put your head up to have a look.  A bullet went smack into the Colonel’s periscope and knocked it out of his hand.  However, with time and patience, we formed a pretty accurate idea of the appearance of the country opposite.  Behind the German trench was the remains of a village, a few of the houses of which were up level with the Boche front line.  A great scene of wreckage.  Every single house was broken, and in a crumbling state.  This was the place we had to take.  Other regiments were to take other spots on the landscape on either side, but this particular spot was our objective.