The relief march up to Battalion Headquarters passed without incident, except for a sudden burst of "whizz-bangs" at Les Cinque Chemins, where, but for the extreme muddiness of the surrounding country, we might have sustained serious casualties. In point of fact, no one was hit with anything worse than lumps of thick mud. The front line company, having now to quit the duck-boards, found their task far from easy. The only key to the situation was a tape line to the various posts, and the going in the Houthulst Forest for those destined for that point was extremely trying. In spite of the heavy shell fire, this was still a large forest; but the number of fallen trees and branches, together with deep pools of mud and water, not to mention miscellaneous stretches of unexpected barbed wire, presented in the dark obstacles to progress of no mean order. At midnight the relief was finally complete, and the 7th Buffs made their way out. [Illustration: Houthulst Forest Sector. _To face Page 150._] With the exception of the two days in the line in front of Langemarck, the conditions for the men in the front line were probably as unpleasant as at any time in France. The shell-hole posts were literally shell-holes, with the very minimum done to improve them as habitations for six or seven men. The exact locality of the respective British and German front lines was to either side somewhat vague, and we were anxious that the men should not give away their positions by elaborating their shell-holes to such an extent that they would be obviously artificial when examined on an aeroplane photograph. The comfort of this form of abode will be better appreciated when one realizes that the best pattern had been deepened to allow of a sump pit in the centre, across which duck-boards had been fixed to keep the inhabitants above water level. No movement was possible in daylight even in the vicinity of Battalion Headquarters. "Tommy cookers" were allowed in the front line by day, and one man at a time was allowed to smoke. In the forest itself conditions were slightly better, though the wretched breastworks erected for the protection of the posts were only hurdles of the flimsiest description. The proximity, or the reverse, of the enemy was quite uncertain, and the surrounding mass of gloomy trees and undergrowth was calculated to produce a feeling of considerable uneasiness in the minds of the occupants, which was hardly to be wondered at.