CHAPTER XVII.

Crossing the canal.

25th Sept., 1918. 4th Oct., 1918.

The two days following this action were spent in refitting and re-organizing what was left of the Battalion.  All available officers from the “battle details” were ordered to join us, and Captains Petch and Banwell resumed command of their Companies, while Lieuts.  Hawley and Corah took over “B” and “D.”  Major Burnett also came up and, though we were still in trenches and holes in the ground, managed to produce hot baths for everybody.  The line was very quiet, the weather warm, we needed a rest, and for two days we had it.  The Brigade was to be relieved by the Staffordshires on the evening of the 27th, and our first orders were to go into various trenches and dug-outs round Grand Priel Farm.  These orders, however, were cancelled before relief, and we were allotted instead a quarry and some trenches just North of le Verguier.

Up to the evening of the 26th all had been very quiet and there was not the slightest sign that any active operations were intended.  However on this evening, the Transport drivers, bringing up rations, told us that all the roads behind the lines were thick with guns, lorries and waggons, all moving up.  At the same time Colonel Griffiths returned from a Conference, with some orders so secret that they were told to no one.  The following day we saw that during the night many new batteries had taken up positions on the Ascension Ridge, guns had been carefully camouflaged, men hidden away in copses, and all was still very quiet.  The same day, officers of another division came up reconnoitering—­all with considerable secrecy—­though one was seen to be carrying a map with a red line on it, somewhere four miles East of the St. Quentin Canal.  The following night more batteries silently took up their positions; large bomb, water and ammunition dumps were made wherever a house or copse would screen them from the enemy’s aircraft, everything was being prepared for some gigantic enterprise.  As we went out to le Verguier, we passed some of the Staffordshires going to the front line.  It was a very dark night, but we could see that they were carrying more than usual and that their equipment looked very bulky.  They were wearing life belts.

The secret could now be kept no longer, and as soon as possible orders were made known to all.  They were brief:  “The 46th Division will on a certain date, as part of a major operation, cross the St. Quentin Canal, capture the Hindenburg Line, and advance to a position on the high ground East of Magny la Fosse and Lehaucourt (2 miles E. of the Canal).”