On a day in October the whole division had entrenched itself in the vicinity of Sharpenhoe and Sundon.  To enliven the exercise night manoeuvres were hastily planned.  Our share was to march at about 11 p.m., after a hard day and half a tea, and to continue marching through the most intricate country until five o’clock the next morning.  At that time we were within charging distance of the enemy, and day was breaking.  Filing through a railway arch we wheeled into extended order and lay down till all were ready.  When the advance was ordered, though we had lain down for two minutes only, the greater number were fast asleep.  Despite this hitch the position was taken, and then a march home brought the exercise to an end at 8.10 a.m.  For this operation we voted a second bar to our medal.

To those who knew all the details of the plan the most brilliant feature was the wonderfully accurate leading of our Brigade Major, now Brigadier-General Aldercron.  He led us behind the advanced posts of the enemy and it was their second line that we attacked.

Many officers were joining us.  Since war had been declared, E.G.  Langdale, R.C.L.  Mould, C.R.  Knighton, S.R.  Pullinger, C.H.  Wollaston, G.W.  Allen, J.D.  Hills, and R. Ward-Jackson had all been added to our strength.  Later came D.B.  Petch, R.B.  Farrer, and J. Wyndham Tomson, of whom Petch was straight from school, and he, with the last two named, served a fortnight in France before being gazetted.  Their further careers can be followed in later chapters with the exception, perhaps, of Hills, who himself writes those chapters.  As his service is a combination of details, many of which are typical of the young officer who fought in the early days of the war, for general information we narrate so much.  John David Hills, though not 20, had already seen six years’ service in his school O.T.C., including one year as a Cadet Officer.  He surrendered his Oxford Scholarship and what that might have meant in order to join up at once.  He passed through the battalion from end to end, occupying at various times every possible place:  signalling officer, intelligence officer, platoon commander, company commander, adjutant, 2nd in command, and finished up in command of what was called “the cadre.”  For some time, too, he was attached to the brigade staff, and when we add that he excelled in every position separately and distinctly, and won the admiration and love of all, we may spare him further embarrassment and let the honours he has won speak for him.

Clothing was a lasting trouble.  We were now wearing out our first suits, and from time to time there confronted us statements that sounded rather like weather reports, for example—­“No trousers to-day; tunics plentiful.”  Then the question arose as to whether a man should wear a vest, and, if so, might he have two, one on the man, the other at the wash.  Patient endurance was rewarded by an answer in the affirmative to the first part of the question, but the correspondence over the second portion has only just reached the armistice stage.