The remaining companies were also set to work on the 14th in Hébuterne on parts of the Brigade scheme, working hours being nightly from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. The parties were much split up, 280 being detailed to the 2/2nd Field Company R.E., 140 to the 5th Cheshires and 140 to the Brigade Signal Officer for digging cable trenches. The tasks were various, but were all directed in one way or another to the completion and repair of the new trench system and the necessary dugouts for the impending offensive. Night after night, for fourteen nights in succession, did the Battalion continue these stiff working parties. Each night there was a march of nearly three miles in each direction between billets and work, each night the Bosche was unpleasantly active with machine-guns, and nearly every night it rained steadily. That the Battalion carried out this depressing duty--for there is nothing with which the average infantryman gets more quickly "fed up" than continual working parties--with such efficiency and keenness is all the more to its credit. Conditions were not comfortable and the men were beginning to be tired; but they stuck to it well for they knew the urgency of the work and how much remained to be done in an impossibly short time. On the 21st June the 167th Brigade took over the whole Divisional sector for six days in order to give a final rest to the 168th and 169th and to keep them as fresh as possible for battle. The 168th withdrew to its old rest billets at Halloy, but again the 1/4th Londons were left behind as works battalion, remaining in Hébuterne attached to the 167th Brigade and sticking to its works programme. On the 23rd June Lieut. W. J. Boutall rejoined the Battalion from home and was posted to D Company, but almost immediately took up the duties of Assistant Adjutant. A draft of the 2/4th Battalion arrived on the 24th, consisting of Lieut. J. R. Webster and 40 other ranks. Affairs in the line had now begun to "tune up." Some days previously the British 9·2 batteries in Bayencourt had begun to register, while on the 24th the preliminary bombardment of the enemy's lines began systematically, with occasional intense periods, alternating with intervals of quiet. This continued daily--and nightly--much to the discomfort of those who were lucky enough to occupy billets with more or less sound ceilings, for their nights were continually disturbed by large pieces of plaster falling on them at each concussion! The attack had been originally projected for the 29th June, and in preparation for this the 168th and 169th Brigades returned to the line in the afternoon of the 27th, the 1/4th Londons advancing from Bayencourt, taking over the whole of W sector from the 8th Middlesex. The sector was occupied on a three-company frontage as follows: D Company--(Giles) with two platoons in W 47 and 48, one platoon in W 47 S and one in billets in Hébuterne.