On the 9th of October the Division marched out of the rest area to take over the left sector of the 4th Corps front, held by the New Zealand Division. After the breaking of the Hindenburg Line the pursuit had been carried on by the Third Army with such vigour that the enemy had been unable to make any prolonged stand, and the front was now at least a dozen miles east of the Couillet Valley. Throughout these operations the Divisional Artillery had assisted the New Zealanders. Evidence of the haste with which the enemy had retired was furnished on the second day’s march, when the battalions passed through Lesdain, as most of the houses here had been left standing, though interiors had been looted. While the unending column of troops and transport moved eastward across the ridges and valleys of the Somme country, past battered villages and farmsteads, a stream of old men, women and children poured to the west. These were the liberated civilians, freed at last from the Prussian yoke. Though many of them seemed too stunned by ill-treatment and the loss of all they had possessed to understand or feel interest in what was passing around them, the greater number greeted the British soldiers enthusiastically, and urged them to drive the _sales Boches_ out of their beloved France, whose soil had been defiled. Ruined and bereft though they were, French pride and passionate love of their country still burned brightly, and the chief emotion was joy that the _cochons prussiens_ were being hustled ignominiously out of France. The second night was passed in Pélu Wood and Château Briseux, with D.H.Q. at Esnes. Away to the north Cambrai was burning so fiercely that the spire of one of its churches stood out black against the background of flame. A semicircle of fires in the further distance told of the destruction of villages and homesteads, and the Lancashire men understood something of the loathing and hatred that animated the homeless French and perhaps saved them from the deadening effect of utter despair. The third day’s march brought the Division to Fontaine-au-Pir and Beauvois, where a halt was made while arrangements were completed for the relief of the New Zealanders around Briastre, on the western bank of the River Selle.