After three and a half months of eight hours’ training per day, with four hours of practice in night operations’ frequently, the 2nd Division was ordered to France. The 25th Battalion proceeded by boat from Folkestone to Boulogne on the night of September 15, 1915, and by train on the following day from Pont de Brieques, a few kilometres from Boulogne, to a small station near St. Omer. From here to the front line was the first real test of the Battalion’s _morale_ and physical condition. Marching for five days with new (Kitchener’s) boots over French and Belgian cobblestone roads, the Battalion relieved the King’s Own Regiment on the night of the 22nd–23rd of September, 1915, the first Nova Scotia Battalion to face the Hun as a Unit. And not a man had dropped out in the gruelling grind of the last four days. The writer has been told, unofficially, that this was a record for the Division, and though it has never been confirmed, neither has it been denied. The first few tours in the front lines were spent in the H and I trenches, Kemmel Sector of the Ypres Salient, where the Hun was very active in mining operations. During the Battalion’s second tour, which extended over six days, Fritz blew one large and three smaller mines on “B” Company, which killed twelve and wounded twenty, leaving a crater 65 feet by 35 feet and 25 feet deep. This resulted in no advantage to the enemy, inasmuch as the charge was situated so that it must have done considerable damage to his trenches, and the crater was promptly garrisoned by Nova Scotians. [Illustration: BRIG.-GEN. E. HILLIAM, C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O.] Late in October, 1915, Major E. Hilliam, a 1st Division officer, succeeded Lieut.-Colonel Lecain in command of the Battalion; and, under his soldierly guidance, the 25th began to make the Bosche sit up and notice his surroundings. Under Major (as O.C., Lieut.-Colonel) Hilliam’s guidance the Battalion became expert in the little tricks which worried the enemy and made trench life more interesting. Notable among the many episodes which added spice to the daily routine was a raid on the Hun trenches by Lieutenant (now Lieut.-Colonel) Wise, and the stalking of a German patrol in No Man’s Land by Corporal (now Captain) “Ernie” Canning, which resulted in the capture of one of their number and the gaining of much information. The small garrison of thirty-five 25th Battalion men, under Lieutenants Morgan, Johnstone and McNeil, holding Nos. 1 and 4 craters at St. Eloi in April, 1915, gave the attacking company of Huns a sample of the unbeatable stuff they are made of.