As before the "B" line was the main line of resistance; but the great length of the "B" line sector--some 2300 yards--which had to be held in eight separate posts, with three additional posts at night, presented a difficult problem in defence to one weak company of about 120 fighting ranks. The solution of the problem was not, however, actually called for as the enemy remained unusually quiet for the whole of this tour of duty, during which the snow fell thicker every day. After an occupation of four uninteresting days the Battalion was relieved in the left subsection on the afternoon of the 9th March by 1/6th Duke of Wellington's Regiment (49th Division). On relief it withdrew to billets at Bout Deville, marching the following morning at 8 a.m. to Merville, where the Brigade entrained for the Le Cauroy area. Detrainment took place at Doullens, and the Battalion marched some six miles to billets at Le Souich, arriving shortly before midnight. The Battalion, which had left the Somme battlefields in an exhausted condition in the previous October, had undergone a good schooling in the Flanders breastworks. The strength had been increased to some 850 all ranks, and all new drafts had become not only well assimilated, but also well trained in a rather trying trench warfare. The physical strain on the troops throughout the winter had been exceptionally severe, owing to the terrible intensity of the winter weather, and the very great amount of trench work for which the Battalion had been called upon; and of this side of the incidents of the winter sufficient has already been said for it to be realised without difficulty that, although the Battalion still had a clean bill of health, the prospect of a rest before embarking on active operations was welcomed by all. The great retirement of the Germans was now in progress, and as the 1/4th Battalion was not actively concerned in this we may turn for the moment to follow the fortunes of the 2/4th Battalion, who had recently arrived in France with the 58th Division and were now in action in the Arras sector. CHAPTER XIII THE 2/4TH BATTALION IN FRANCE--GERMAN RETIREMENT FROM THE SOMME The 58th Division, of which the 2/4th Londons formed a part, after remaining at Ipswich for about a month, was transferred to the Southern Command in hutted camps at Sutton Veny, near Warminster, on the 10th July 1916.