In Gallipoli the opposing trenches had often been only a few yards apart, and rifle-fire had continued all day and increased in violence at night. In that sector of the Western Front taken over by the Division the recent withdrawal of the enemy had created a No Man’s Land, which might be anything from 10 yards to 1000 in width, and unaimed rifle-fire was uncommon. Here, too, patrolling was a matter of nightly routine, whereas in Gallipoli more than an occasional patrol had been impossible. Two of the most novel features were the gas and the amount of H.E. shelling. It was the Division’s first experience of gas, and on rare occasions only had it witnessed _annihilating_ shell-fire. Never before had any of the original members been in billets, and they found them and their inhabitants a source of interest and comfort. Some felt hurt that the bits of Arabic picked up in the East were of no use here, and they resolutely refused to learn any French. “I’ve learnt Gyppo, and I’m not going to bother with any more foreign languages.” Imagine their delight when on leave in Amiens they found that the paper-boys (who had come into contact with the Australians) knew the meaning of “_Imshi!_” This word, being the imperative of the Arabic verb “to walk,” did duty for “’op it!” Possibly the most striking differences of all were that the Division got reinforcements after suffering casualties, and was able to get back into “rest” of a real kind after a trying time in the line. The strength of the Division on April 1 was 727 officers and 16,689 other ranks. [Sidenote: _New Experiences_] Advance parties had been sent ahead of the Division, and now other parties of officers, N.C.O.s and men were attached for short periods to battalions and units of the 1st Division in the front line trenches that they might see and understand the conditions of warfare on the Western Front, before the Division should be called upon to take its place in the line that stretched from the Belgian coast to Switzerland. The enemy’s retirement from the Somme and the Ancre to the Hindenburg Line had upset the plans of the Allies for a spring offensive. The recently-vacated German trenches were visited, and the scenes of appalling devastation, the shattered remains of what had once been flourishing villages and farmsteads, gave the troops their first impressions of France’s martyrdom, and filled them with indignation and loathing. They had heard and read of the ruin and desolation in Belgium and Northern France, but the half had not been told. The wanton destruction of fruit-trees and the desecration of cemeteries were acts dictated not by military necessity but by beastliness of mind.