The Battalion front was well over 2,000 yards in length--by far the longest it had held up to that time. Two continuous lines of breast-works, each garrisoned by two companies, formed the main defences. The front line was held by seven platoon posts, three on the right company front and four on the left. Each post was complete in itself, was well wired front and rear, and was only in communication with neighbouring posts by means of patrols, which moved along the unoccupied parts of the line at stated times. At night the entrances to these posts were blocked by chevaux de frise, and sentries challenged everyone who approached along the front line. Between the two companies there was an unoccupied gap, 500 yards long. The support line was held rather more continuously, but long stretches were quite unoccupied. Three communication trenches connected the front line with the Rue du Bois--Rope Street, Cadbury Street and Cockspur Street. When the Battalion first took over the sector the hard winter weather was just breaking. The whole country-side was very wet and many of the trenches, particularly the communication trenches, were deep in water. But, before the Battalion left, the sector had dried up considerably. Battalion H.Q. was in a nameless farm on the Rue du Bois. This farm had suffered little from enemy shelling and there were several quite comfortable rooms in it. All headquarter personnel lived either in the farm buildings or in shelters which had been erected in the orchard. Few of the latter were even splinter-proof, but the locality was never shelled. It was one of the most comfortable H.Q. ever occupied by the Battalion and much work was done to improve it. It was customary for the resting battalion to provide a platoon each day to work under the orders of the battalion in the line. During one of his tour’s, the Adjutant of the 1/5th Battalion made use of this working party to build a new sandbag dugout for himself. Apparently he was pleased with the work for he named the dugout “Deodar House,” after the secret nomme de guerre of his own battalion, quite overlooking the fact that the work had been done by men of another unit. But the men of the 1/4th Battalion had their revenge. When they were next in the line they painted every scrap of the woodwork outside the Farmhouse red--their battalion colour--much to the disgust of the other battalion which preferred its own colour--green. At this time there was a perfect mania for naming places and nailing up notice boards so that there should be no mistakes. An energetic police corporal, having a prisoner for whom he wanted to find a job of work, built a small sandbag ammunition store, and was so pleased with the finished article that he placed upon it a big notice-board--“The Binns Redoubt.”