When we had been here about a week, Major Odom returned, and a day or so later Lieuts. Schuyler and Merrill rejoined the company. They were all primed with the new wrinkles they had picked up at school at Chatillon, and took over the first and third platoons respectively. Schuyler’s conscientiousness, high spirits and inexhaustible energy made him a great asset to the company. Merrill was an equally hard and willing worker, and though young, was one of the brightest men in the regiment. He had graduated from the school at the head of his class, which included majors, captains and lieuts. from all over the A. E. F. We were stationed about 50 kilometers behind the lines; and had the Germans made one more drive on Calais that summer we should have undoubtedly gone into action. No lights were shown at night, and it was seldom that we did not hear the droning buzz of the great Boche bombing planes winging their way to bomb Calais or Boulogne, or maybe some nearer town, Desvres or St. Omer. At the beginning of July details of officers and n. c. o.’s were sent up to the front lines for four day tours of observation. Sgts. Ertwine, Perry and I went on the first one, and were in the line with a battalion of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers. Our experiences, while interesting, hardly belong here. Lieut. Foulkes went up the next week and landed in the midst of an attack, so he saw plenty of action. Then Lieut. Schuyler went up with an Australian outfit, who didn’t let him pine for excitement during his stay. It was an excellent system, and we saw at first hand how things were really run in the trenches. When I returned from my tour, an orderly brought around late that night some red covered books and leaflets, and we were told that these would be put into effect the next day. These were the new system of combat formations, involving an absolutely new extended order drill, and formation of the company. Lieut. Moore had drilled a few times in these formations; the rest of us knew no more about them than the company cooks did. So next morning we sallied forth, books in hand, and worked the formations out step by step. Everyone was quick to see that this was something like business, as of course our old army regulations were absurd when it came to using the new special weapons, such as automatic rifles, hand and rifle grenades, and so on. So the new formations were mastered remarkably quickly. A bayonet course with trenches, “shell holes” and dummies was installed, and a sergeant of the Northumberland Fusileers was instructor. He was a good one, too; but as usual, we were up against it, as he taught some things slightly differently from the American methods.