Guides were to meet the companies at Houplines Level Crossing, commencing at 7 p.m. The following were the dispositions and routes: "D" Company, right front sector viâ Spain Avenue; "C" Company, right centre viâ Gloucester Avenue; "B" Company, up Durham and Edmeads Avenue to left centre; while "A" Company went up Durham and along the subsidiary line to Irish Avenue and thence to left sector. Each company was responsible for its own supports and reserves, the latter consisting usually of a few cooks and ration carriers. Headquarters were accommodated in "bivvies" in the subsidiary line round Battalion Headquarters, and a few details at Cambridge House. The relief was completed at 11.40 p.m., and the Australians moved off for a rest and training preliminary to the Battle of Messines. They were a very cheery crowd and extremely obliging, and rendered the relief a very agreeable task. The code word was dispatched by telephone to Brigade, and we commenced our first tour in a sector that we were destined to occupy, turn and turn about with the 2/7th K.L.R., for four and a half months. [Illustration: HOUPLINES.] [Illustration] As the period was such a long one, a more detailed description may be attempted than has been thought necessary in regard to other sectors held from time to time by the battalion. There were three main communication trenches leading into the line, all previously referred to. Spain and Gloucester Avenues, both starting from Tissage Dump, cut the subsidiary line on the right and right centre respectively. Durham Avenue started from Nouvel Houplines a few yards from Tissage Dump and to the north of it, and joined the subsidiary line close to Cambridge House. There was also the road from Nouvel Houplines to Frelinghien which ran past the north end of the subsidiary and support lines, but was under observation by day and unhealthy by night. On the extreme right, and just beyond our boundary, was Buterne Avenue, a deep traversed trench over which we had a right of way. It wandered about distressingly, and eventually ended in a small side street near Barbed Wire Square. Farther to the right and well on into the Epinette sector was Lunatic Lane, which eventually became an open track and led into the outskirts of Armentières by the Asylum.