The 116th Battalion in France

vited to pay a visit to some taped trenches close to Villers au Bois,

. To straighten out this salient was therefore the object now in view, and to this end the entire Canadian Corps was to be engaged. An assault through Avion and Méricourt, which were situated to the south of Lens, combined

every day, and then suddenly[50] the practices ceased, and strawberry jam was substituted for the everlasting plum and apple. This generally meant that the time for the attack was drawing near, but in this case it did not materialize, for on the 14th of October we received orders to mo

er resting here for two days and surprising the natives with our fondness for corn on the cob, which until now t

s under conditions that must have been almost heartbreaking. It had poured with rain every day; the mud was well over their knees, and they were enfiladed fr

concrete constructions, made out of Portland cement (?) and divided into sev

o five feet of solid concrete, and our field artillery shel

he mud. Once in a while a twelve-inch "how." would make a direct hit on one of these hornets' nests and then, of course, Fritz would stay in there never to come out

of ridges, and you no sooner reached the top of one

e distance, and it was plain to all around that fresh and experienced troops would be needed at this point to effect its capture. There was perhaps no Corps on the Western front at that

5

oing Australian units. From all they told us or rather shouted at us as they crowded into the train we had just left, we began to realize that we were not going to enjoy ourselves quite so much as we thought. "Go to it, yer blighters," they yelled, and away we went. Having occupied several "Camps

from the remnants of the Brigade, remaining there until relieved by the

od-bye" to them, as we thought, and moved by bus to Vlamertinghe, and from there to the Watou area, east of Poperinghe, having lost fo