On the 29th Brigadier-General the Earl of Cavan was promoted, and left to take over command of the Fiftieth Division. He was succeeded by Brigadier-General G. P. T. Feilding, who had commanded the 2nd Battalion Coldstream Guards since the commencement of the war, and who had gained a great reputation during the last twelve months' fighting. [Sidenote: July.] On the 28th the Battalion changed its billets from Sailly-la-Bourse to Oblingham, and on July 1 to Annezin. On the 5th it went into the trenches at Annequin in precisely the same part of the line it had occupied in January and February, when hundreds of men had been killed. The trenches were in a hollow, which was generally known as the Valley of Death, and were in a very bad condition. Little seemed to have been done to them since the Battalion was last there, and in many places the parapet was too high and not bullet-proof. The Battalion therefore set to work to improve them, and a company of the Queen's Regiment from the Corps troops was sent up to help. This seemed the height of luxury to the men, who were unaccustomed to having other people digging their trenches. On July 2 Second Lieutenant H. F. C. Crookshank arrived, and on the 5th Second Lieutenant E. H. Noble, Second Lieutenant M. A. Knatchbull-Hugessen, and Second Lieutenant E. W. M. Grigg joined the Battalion. On the 15th the Battalion took over the trenches at Guinchy, spending alternately two days in the trenches and two days in billets at Bethune. On the 21st it went into Brigade Reserve, and remained for a week at Bethune, and on the 28th moved into billets at Le Preol, and acted as reserve Battalion to the troops in the trenches at Givenchy. At Cuinchy, in addition to the regular shelling, the Germans employed their new type of Minenwerfer, from which they fired large bombs, but their effect was local, and as the men were able to see them coming, they did little damage. Once a large wooden bomb landed in a trench without exploding, and was carried off as a souvenir by two stretcher-bearers, who happened to be passing. On the 18th the enemy began shelling Bethune, and continued for nearly a week, which made the men's two days' rest in billets a farce. The shells came screaming and roaring into the town, and terrific explosions followed. The enemy of course had no difficulty in hitting the town and shelling the houses, but it was merely a matter of chance how many men were hit. The shells were at first directed on the railway station, but beyond causing a complete suspension of traffic they did little harm, and there were few casualties. On the 22nd the bombardments became more searching, and many men were killed. The Inniskilling Fusiliers alone lost seventy men that day. The Grenadiers were more lucky, and at first escaped with little loss, but on the 24th some men were wounded and nineteen horses were killed. [Illustration: Officers of the Second Battalion Grenadier Guards.]