On the morning of the 23rd March the infantry brigades of the 42nd Division, packed into many hundreds of motor-busses and lorries, pressed southwards through St. Pol to Doullens, and then turned north-east along the Arras road to Beaumetz-les-Loges, where they turned south-east in the direction of Ayette, a village more than eight miles south of Arras and nearly eight miles north-west of Bapaume. At this stage of the journey they were met by straggling groups of refugees, women, children, and old men, hastening with the more portable of their poor possessions out of the reach of Hun savagery and rapacity. Some of these homeless wanderers appeared haggard and despairing; some numbed and hopeless; others simply bewildered. It was a pitiful and pathetic sight, which aroused feelings of mingled pity and anger, and intensified the Lancashire men’s longing to get to close quarters with the oppressor. They were to have their wish. Those who had joined the Division since August 1915 found the few remaining days of March more crammed with incident and fighting than the whole of their previous careers. As they drew nearer to their destination progress became more and more difficult, the roads being packed with troops moving in the same direction; and with an increasing stream of traffic retiring before the enemy’s advance. The Divisional Commander and G.S.O. 1. (Lieut.-Colonel R. F. Guy, D.S.O.) had gone on some hours in advance of the Division to reconnoitre, glean information, and attempt to unravel the tangled skein of conflicting reports. At 5 p.m. on March 23, D.H.Q. was established at Adinfer, about two miles north-east of Ayette. The 125th and 126th Brigades debussed at 7 p.m. and proceeded to Adinfer Wood to bivouac. In the wood were many green woodpeckers, which greeted the men with their jeering cry. “Aye, _you_ can ⸺ well laugh!” growled a Salford man, for the night spent in this wood was not a cheerful or restful one. There was a keen frost, and as fires were forbidden, most of the men tried to find warmth by walking up and down during the night. Before midnight the 127th Brigade debussed on the Ayette—Douchy road and took up an outpost position, facing south-east, with two battalions in the outpost line on the Ablainzevelle—Moyenneville Ridge, a few miles south-east of Adinfer, with Brigade H.Q. at Courcelles Aerodrome. Owing to the congested state of the roads the transport was unable to rejoin the Division until the night of the 25th. The Division was therefore without horses or wagons; there were no telephones and no mounted messengers. The Divisional Commander succeeded in borrowing horses from the 40th Division for the many reconnaissances made prior to taking over command of the sector. But great as the difficulties were, they were many times greater when it came to actual command in battle.