At 8.30 p.m., long after it was dark, the train drew into Bailleul Station, where the Staff Captain, Captain Beazley, was awaiting our arrival. Instantly everyone was galvanized into life. Huge flares illumined the darkness, and officers and N.C.Os. rushed about rousing their men, who were wildly searching in the dark recesses of their cattle-trucks for missing articles of kit. As usual, in a short time apparent chaos resolved itself into order, and the battalion moved off on its eight-mile march to billets under the guidance of an Australian, who was quite distressingly frank about his ignorance of the route. It was a trying march. The experience of the last two days, including twelve hours cramped up in trucks, had not been a very good preliminary to a three hours' tramp. Never had one's kit weighed so heavily. The "tin hat" between the pack straps seemed to increase the weight terribly. The road through the silent streets of Bailleul was cobbled, but as soon as the town was cleared a good country road with a pleasant surface took its place. Slowly the column moved along, and it was nearly midnight before we reached the forked roads where some of the companies had to branch off to their billets. The guide went with them, as the Quartermaster, who had passed us with the stores in a lorry, knew about the billets in Strazeele village. The guide, however, proved a broken reed, and much marching and counter-marching took place, and many an angry conversation with irate householders, before the tired companies at last got to rest in their respective billets--empty barns of a draughty nature. Headquarters proceeded to Strazeele, and eventually settled into billets where, in one case at any rate, a kindly hostess was waiting up with ample supplies of excellent coffee. About six o'clock the next morning Major Wilson awoke the Adjutant to say that the transport had arrived, and where was it to go? On this question the Adjutant was entirely devoid of information, having seen nothing of the village in the blackness of the previous night. However, on further inquiry the Major found the field that had been selected, and soon the transport were settled in it, and the battalion was now collected and ready for any emergency. Strazeele is (or was) a typical little village, consisting of two main streets forming a cross, a few straggling houses wandering off from these, two chief avenues, a church, a mairie, and innumerable estaminets. The surrounding country is slightly undulating arable land dotted with small farms, in which the various companies were billeted. The frost held for the first two days, but then the thaw set in with the thin rain and thick mud so strongly identified with Northern France and Flanders.