Divisional exercise is a great game of make-believe.  All sorts of liberties are taken, the clock is put forward or back at the command of the general, a great enemy army is created in the twinkling of an eye, day is turned into night and a regular game of topsy-turvydom indulged in.  On the occasion of which I write the whole division was out.  The time was nine o’clock in the forenoon, and an imaginary forced march was nearly completed, and an imaginary day was at an end.  We were being hurried up as reinforcements to the main army, which was in touch with the enemy ahead and an engagement was developing.  Our battalion came to a halt on the roadway, closing in to the left in order to give full play to the field telephone service in process of being laid.

Our officers went out in front to seek a position for a bivouac; the doctor accompanied them to examine the place chosen, see to the water supply, the drainage, and sanitation.  In addition to this, our commanders had to find the battalion a resting-ground easy to defend and of merit as a tactical position.

At ten o’clock we lay down, battalion after battalion, just as we halted:  equipment on, our packs unloosened but shoved up under our heads, and our rifles by our sides, muzzles towards the enemy.  One word of command would bring twenty thousand men from their beds, ready in an instant, rifles loaded, bayonets at hips, quick to the route and ready for battle.  We would rise, as we slept, in full marching order, and the space of a moment would find us hurrying, fully armed, into battle, with the sleep of night still heavy in our eyes.

For miles around the soldiers lay down, each in his place and every place occupied.  Hardly a word was spoken; commands were whispered, and our officers crept round explaining the work ahead.  Two miles in front the enemy was assembled in great strength on a river, and by dawn, if all went well, we would enter the firing line.  At present we had to lie still; no man was to move about, and sentries with fixed bayonets were stationed at front, flank, and rear, ready to give the alarm at the first sign of danger.

Behind us were the kitchen, horse-lines, and latrines.  The position of these varies as the wind changes, and it is imperative that unhealthy odours are not blown across the bivouac.  The battalion lay in two parallel squares, with a gangway, blocked up with baggage and various necessaries, between.  On these squares no refuse was to be thrown down; the ground had to be kept clean; papers, scraps of meat, and pieces of bread, if not eaten, had to be buried.