Only twenty-four hours were spent in the new location, for the next night the whole Brigade was withdrawn into Divisional Reserve. The Battalion was relieved by the 1st Queens and withdrew to Mont Noir; here the only billets available, with the exception of one estaminet occupied by Battalion H.Q., were slits in the ground. By this time the French were coming up in force and were taking over the whole sector. Long before dawn on the morning of April 21st, the Battalion marched out and proceeded in the darkness, through batteries of French 75’s which were already in action, to a hutment camp on the top of Mont des Cats. Here the men slept until the middle of the afternoon. It was the first real piece of comfort they had had since they were hurried into battle nearly two weeks before. (_e_) Poperinghe. The Battalion only stopped on Mont des Cats for a few hours and then it moved off to Poperinghe. On the way, it passed the G.O.C., IX. Corps, who had come to take a last look at the men who had served him so well. Though a sorry remnant of the Battalion, which had embussed so cheerfully at Reninghelst only twelve days before, they were well worth a second glance. Ragged, unshaven and unkempt, with nothing clean about them but their rifles, bayonets and ammunition, they were yet a body of veterans whom anyone would have been proud to command. Thrown into the battle when the enemy was flushed with success, they had fought and beaten him time after time. It was the proud boast of the Battalion that it had never withdrawn without definite orders to do so, and that the enemy had never won from it an inch of ground. Messages of thanks and congratulations had poured in to the Brigade from all quarters--from the Commander-in-Chief, from General Plumer, and from the IX. Corps. The G.O.C., 34th Division, on parting with the 147th Infantry Brigade, wrote to the G.O.C., 49th Division, in the following terms:-- “The G.O.C., 34th Division, wishes to place on record his great appreciation of the services rendered by 147th Infantry Brigade during the period it has been attached to the Division under his command. The action of the 4th Battalion Duke of Wellington’s South of the Lys on 10th April, the skilful rearguard fighting under cover of which the Division withdrew from the Nieppe position, the stubborn defence of the right of the Division at Steam Mill (S. of Bailleul) and the complete defeat of a whole German Regiment on the 16th April, are exploits of which the Brigade may well be proud. Throughout the period the steadiness, gallantry and endurance of all ranks has been worthy of the highest traditions of British Infantry and the G.O.C., 34th Division, is proud to have had such troops under his command.”