The move into line commenced on the 3rd December, and was completed on the 6th. The cable sections, so depleted by the large numbers on leave that they were unable to fill the saddles of the mounted men, moved with the Divisional Signal Companies, and were directed—B.E. and B.G. on Bray, and B.F. on Maricourt. Headquarters and the air line section joined the Corps Headquarters at Etinehem, a village on the right bank of the Somme, a mile or so west of Bray. In their weakened condition all sections had a most strenuous time taking over communications as released by the French, testing the routes out, reorganizing the lines and connecting up units as they arrived. The Corps front extended from the XIV. Corps boundary on the north at Combles, previously the extreme right of the British line, to near Bouchavesnes, and ran in front of St. Pierre Vaast Wood, where the most desperate French attacks in the autumn had, like our own in the north, been stifled in the mud. The terrain as a whole was of similar nature and condition to that in the Longueval sector, but the roads were better, Décauville tramways existed, and best of all, from a signal point of view, a very fair network of deep cable trenches had been dug in the forward area. Though the cable used in these “buries”—mainly one pair lead covered with impregnated paper insulation—proved unreliable in insulation, and much trouble was caused and many circuits lost thereby, yet the “buries” proved very useful, and, supplemented by the construction system of several new open routes in rear, enabled a communication system to be rapidly completed, sufficient for the needs of the defensive winter campaign. Corps forward exchanges were established with the Heavy Artillery Headquarters in excellent French dug-outs at Bois Louage in front of Maurepas, as at Maricourt, in charge of B.F. section, and with B.G. section at Bray, where the horse lines of all cable sections were shortly concentrated. The sappers of B.E. section remained with H.A. Headquarters under Lieutenant Collins, who replaced Captain Ross as H.A. Signal Officer, while the latter did duty at Headquarters during the successive sick leaves of Lieutenant-Colonel Harrison and Captain Dingwall.