The whole neighbourhood was covered with coal mines.  Each had its machine buildings, its slag heap, and its rows of miners’ cottages, called “Corons,” all in perfectly straight lines.  The mine complete was known as a “Cite,” and a Cite in the case of a large mine, covered a considerable tract of country, and had several hundred cottages.  As the mines increased in number or grew in size, these Cites became more and more numerous, until when war began the country was fast becoming one large town.  The trenches ran from cellar to cellar, through houses, along roadsides, were very irregular, and mostly short, unconnected and isolated lengths.  Streets were the only means of communication, and these could not be used except at night.  We were at a great disadvantage in this area.  The Boche had but lately occupied the line we were now holding; he knew its whereabouts exactly, knew every corner of it, and could observe it from his heights on both flanks.  We on the other hand never quite knew where the Boche was living, had no observation of his front line, and were consequently unable to retaliate as effectively as we should have wished to his trench mortars.

On the 19th of April Lt.  Col.  J.B.O.  Trimble, M.C., arrived and took command, and the same night we marched through Bethune and Noeux les Mines to the “Double Crassier”—­a long double slag heap near Loos—­where we lived for two days in cellars and dug-outs, in Brigade Reserve.  The day after we arrived an attempt was made by the Division on our left to capture “Hill 70.”  It failed, and during the enemy’s retaliatory bombardment our positions were heavily shelled, and five men wounded.  The next night we moved back to Maroc and Bully Grenay, where we stayed until the 23rd, when we relieved the 4th Battalion in the front line.

Our new sector was one of the worst we ever held.  The front line, “A” Company (Petch), consisted of “Cooper Trench”—­an exposed salient in front of Cite St. Pierre, overlooked and shelled from every direction and absolutely unapproachable during daylight, except for those who were willing to crawl.  “B” and “C” Companies (Wynne and Moore) were behind in cellars, and “D” (Shields) and Battalion Headquarters still further back in the Cite.  On the left could be seen the low slag heap and railway line of St. Pierre coal mine, held by our 1st Battalion, under which the 6th Division a few days previously had lost an entire platoon buried in a collapsed dug-out.

The tour lasted six days, and at the end of the second “D” Company relieved “A” in Cooper trench.  It was originally intended to relieve “D” in the same way two nights later, but this was impossible, because we had to take over a new sector of line on the right, where “B” Company now relieved the 4th Lincolnshires, astride the Cite St. Edouard road.  The new sector was not so exposed to view, and consequently to shelling as Cooper trench, but had other disadvantages, chief among which was its peculiar shape.  A sharp pointed salient ran out along the Cite St. Edouard road, while South of this the line bent back to the right until it reached the outskirts of St. Pierre.