After Vimy the Battery moved forward to a position between Angres and Cité du Caumont. It had a long and memorable stay here during the protracted fighting round Lens. The position was a very forward one for a six-inch Battery, and the Hun machine guns at night seemed very near. Our infantry front line at first was rather uncertain just here and German snipers and posts used to occupy empty houses at night not very far from the Battery. It was a good position. The guns were just behind a hill which screened their flash and were well concealed from aeroplane observation. The men off duty had good deep Hun dugouts, some 600 yards in rear. But the place was shelled continually. The Battery had wonderful luck, shells day after day dropping all round the guns and B. C. Post. Funk pits were soon constructed near the guns for men to take cover when necessary. It was during one of these enforced cessations of fire that a little episode occurred. The No. 1, on looking out, saw an old gunner (Gunner Forde) calmly sitting on the trail of his gun and quietly using most abusive and lurid language against the enemy. On being asked by him why he did not obey the order to take cover, he said, “There is not a blankety blank Hun living who will make me take cover.” It then transpired that he had habitually stayed behind in this manner on such occasions. One of the chief dangers was from splinters. In trying to get our guns many of the Hun shells exploded on the top of the ridge in front of them, which sent showers of splinters for 800 yards, so that the daily relief going and coming from dugouts to guns had an anxious time. During the stay at Angres many other batteries came to the locality, but did not stay long, leaving for sunnier climes. It was during one of these visits that the first decoration was awarded to the 9th C.S.B., Gunner Makin getting the M.M. for pulling some gunners belonging to another battery out of the debris in which they had been buried by hostile shell fire. But many others deserved a decoration as well as he and were frequently recommended for it. In May the Battery had their most unlucky day, one chance shell killing seven and wounding six. It was in June that a Staff Officer informed the Battery that for the time it had been in France it had (_a_) fired more rounds than any other Battery, (_b_) had received more shelling than any other Battery, and (_c_) was the most advanced Battery on the front. In October the Battery left Lens area for the North with the Canadian Corps, which was to relieve the Australians in the operations against Passchendaele. It remained in the Ypres Salient till Dec. 13th. The Battery relieved three R.G.A. Batteries in turn, going further forward each time. By a merciful providence the ground was soft, and in consequence many enemy shells were “duds”; otherwise nothing could have prevented heavy casualties. Constant shelling and bombing; the enemy’s aeroplanes everywhere; ours not in sight.