Yours sincerely, F. G. Guggisberg. (_c_) St. Elie Sector. The Battalion spent three nights in Estaires and then moved by motor bus to Sailly Labourse. The next day it marched to billets in Philosophe, a mining village north-west of Lens. Here the 147th Infantry Brigade came temporarily under the orders of the G.O.C., 6th Division, relieving a Brigade of that division which was required for an operation near Lens. The first days were spent in Brigade Reserve at Philosophe, time being occupied in training and in reconnaissance of the sector which the Battalion was soon to take over. The country was typical of the Lens mining district and not unlike the Barnsley coalfield. An excellent view of it was obtained from the top of a neighbouring slag-heap. On the night of June 25/26th the Battalion relieved the 6th Batt. Duke of Wellington’s Regt, in the St. Elie Right Sub-Sector, where its right rested on the Hulluch-Vermelles Road. This sector was a most peculiar one, and quite different from any the Battalion had previously occupied. The country-side was all chalk, so that the trenches were comparatively easy to keep in order and were, on the whole, dry. The sector was approached from Vermelles by Chapel Alley, one of the longest communication trenches the men had ever seen, which ran alongside the road to Hulluch; but most people preferred to use the road or a cross-country route until they were about half way up to the line. The trenches lay entirely on the ground which had been captured from the enemy in the Battle of Loos. Battalion H.Q. was an old German dugout, just off the old German front line. From this point the route to the front line was up Devon Lane as far as St. George’s Trench, and then along one or other of the tunnels. These tunnels were wonderful works of engineering. Cut out of solid chalk, lit up by electric light, ventilated by electric fans, and lying thirty to forty feet below the surface, they gave one a feeling of absolute security, except against gas. Indeed, this feeling was so strong that they exercised rather a demoralising influence--once inside, one hardly liked to leave them, for the heaviest shell or trench mortar could scarcely shake them. Here and there stair-cases led up to posts, the parapets of which were constructed from the sandbags of “spoil” obtained in the excavation of the tunnels. Except on the centre company front, nearly every post was reached in this way. Most of the old front line was derelict, little being held except the posts at the tunnel exits, and a few great mine craters.