After all this bother the actual inspection was cancelled and we went into trenches again instead.  Our sector this time was Cambrin, called after the village next North of Vermelles, and the sector immediately on the left of our last—­St. Elie.  On the morning of the 1st of December we marched to Annequin, on the Beuvry-La Bassee Road, and relieved some Loyal North Lancashires, Worcestershires and Portuguese in the Brigade support positions.  The Headquarters and two Companies were in Annequin village, the other two Companies in two groups of dug-outs, “Maison Rouge” and “Factory,” about 500 yards East of Cambrin.  We only stayed here twenty-four hours and then went into the front line, “Cambrin Right” sub-sector.

Cambrin Right was very like St. Elie Left with the good points left out.  The right Company had tunnels but they were not safe, though just as smelly as our old ones.  It was the same on the left, while in the centre, there were deep enough tunnels, but they were unconnected with anything and unlit.  The front line consisted mostly of craters, a large series of which occupied what had once been the Hohenzollern Redoubt.  At intervals along the lips were odd posts, each at the end of a short trench leading back into Northampton trench or the tunnel system.  The right group of tunnels, the Savile tunnel, started half-way up Savile Row, a communication trench which had originally run from the Reserve line to Northampton trench, but now stopped at the tunnel entrance.  The centre group had no name, started from Northampton trench, and had no proper communication trench.  The left group was the “Quarry” tunnel system, starting from the old quarry and running leftwards from the Northern edge of the Hohenzollern craters almost to our posts opposite Mad Point.  The left Company had no posts actually on crater lips, though they had one or two craters in No Man’s Land.  “Quarry” Alley led to the “Quarry” and a newly dug trench ran from this to Northampton near the centre tunnels, but it was in bad condition and seldom used.  As a rule, those who wished to visit the centre went through either Savile or Quarry tunnels to get there.  One other trench led forward from the Reserve Line, Bart’s Alley, but this ended in a large pile of sandbags and one of the Tunnelling Company’s private entrances to the mining galleries.  Between the Reserve Line and Northampton a few ends of gas piping, sticking out of the ground, showed where our 1915 front line had been, from which we had attacked on the 13th October.  The two flank Company Headquarters were in the tunnels, the centre Company in a deep dug-out in Northampton trench.  The Reserve Company, with one platoon of each of the front line Companies, lived in the Reserve Line.