With the exception of its first tour, the Battalion always held the extreme left sector. Its left flank rested on the River Ancre and its right on Union Street, the length of front being about a thousand yards. All four companies held portions of the front line, and, tour after tour, they returned to the same positions--A, B, C, D from right to left. No Man’s Land varied from about 250 to 400 yards in width. Along it, and roughly parallel to the opposing lines, lay the sunken Thiepval Road. Crowded as it was with the bodies of the Ulstermen, who had fallen or crawled there to die on July 1st, this road was a ghastly place. The British front line lay along the north and north-eastern edges of Thiepval Wood. Hewn out of the chalk, the trenches had been comparatively good up to the opening of the battle; but the fearful hammering they had since received had almost obliterated them in many places. There were some good deep dugouts, but not nearly enough to accommodate all the men. The communication trenches, which led back to Battalion H.Q. and the crossings over the Ancre, were badly constructed and sited; the main ones lay along, or just beside, the chief rides in the wood, and they were so straight that they could easily be enfiladed by the enemy artillery. Battalion H.Q. was at Gordon Castle. There, too, accommodation was scanty. Some attempts were made to improve it, but these were greatly hampered by enemy shelling. In particular, a bath-house was planned and, after a week’s hard work, was completed, only to be demolished the following morning by a shell. Nothing daunted, Lieut. J. T. Riley set to work to rebuild it. But the second attempt had no more success than the first. The very night the building was pronounced ready for use, another shell knocked off one of the corners. That was too much. The yearning for cleanliness had to remain unsatisfied, while the remnants of the building were used for the holding of the numerous courts of enquiry which were so popular about that time.