At Hannescamps, the Battalion had taken over the most elaborate and well-organised system of cooking they had ever seen in a front line sector. A good kitchen had been built in a sunken road not far from the village, and there hot meals were regularly prepared for the whole Battalion. These were carried up, in hot food containers, by the men of the reserve company, and living was almost as good in the front line as in rest billets. The only serious difficulties were the shortage of water, and the rats. Rats! Everyone who has seen much of trench warfare knows how prevalent rats are. But never, at any other time or place, has the Battalion had to contend with such a pest as it found at Hannescamps. Everywhere the trenches swarmed with them; but nowhere were they so bad as among the shelters near Battalion H.Q. They ate everything they could get their teeth into. The very first night the Battalion was there, not only were nearly all iron rations spoiled, but more than half the packs and haversacks of the men of D Company, who were in reserve, were ruined. Nothing could be done to cope with them and they had to be endured. The remaining packs and haversacks were only saved by taking them out nightly and hanging them on thin wires, which were stretched from tree to tree in a neighbouring orchard. After four days in this sector, the Battalion was relieved by the 1/5th Battalion King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, and went to Souastre for a rest. There all efforts were concentrated on smartening up. This was very necessary. For practically three months there had been little opportunity for a man to keep himself bodily clean, much less smart; and there had been few proper parades. The result had been a distinct falling off in smartness; but, after one or two periods in Brigade Reserve, the improvement was very marked. Only two tours were done in the Hannescamps Sector and then the 146th Infantry Brigade took over the line. While the remainder of the Battalion moved to Bienvillers for the night, D Company was sent to the Bluff, south of Fonquevillers, where it came under the orders of the 5th Battalion Duke of Wellington’s Regt. There it provided shifts for work in the tunnels for two days, and then rejoined the Battalion at Humbercamps. After two more short moves, the Battalion arrived again at Souastre. (_b_) Fonquevillers.