[26] The General Officer Commanding the 62nd Division from February, 1915, to May, 1916, was Major-General Sir James Trotter, K.C.B. He had served in Bechuanaland and South Africa (Queen’s Medal with two clasps, and C.B.), and was appointed C.M.G. in 1897, and K.C.B. in 1912. [27] Field-Marshal Viscount French of Ypres (created 1915), O.M., K.P., etc., Commander-in-Chief of the Expeditionary Forces in France, 1914-15. [28] See page 3. [29] On one occasion a scouring of latrines with a solution of chloride of lime caused a rumour of the arrival of poison-gas. [30] By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. [31] John Buchan, _Nelson’s History of the War_, Vol. vii., p. 93. [32] Its numerical designation was not published in Corps Orders till the following week (see page 40), but it is more convenient for use. [33] The 146th Brigade was between the 7th and 8th Divisions, on the right of the rest of the 49th. ‘We were holding the line pretty thin. My own Company,’ writes an Officer of the Brigade, ‘had 650 yards of front line trench.... Thus, you will see we did take part in the battle of May 9th, although we did not go over the top.’ [34] By John Masefield. Heinemann, 1916. [35] General Edward Maxwell Perceval, of the R.F.A., served in India, Burmah, and South Africa, where he was awarded the Queen’s and King’s Medals (with 5 clasps) and won his D.S.O. He went to France, 1914, Commanding R.A., 2nd Division, and was promoted Major-General and appointed C.B. in the following year. He was acting as Sub-Chief of the Staff at General Headquarters when the accident to Maj.-Gen. Baldock gave him his appointment to the 49th Division, which he commanded till October, 1917. [36] One word about the field telephone will be in place. The whole countryside behind the British line was a network of telephone wires at this time; ‘one keeps tripping over them everywhere,’ it was said, and there were probably 30 to 50 miles of wire to a single Artillery Brigade. [37] So called, because they were on you and exploded before you heard the report. As to ‘heavies,’ a visitor to the lines in September, 1915, wrote: ‘Guns, particularly big Guns and Howitzers, are going to win this war, not rifles.... I was shown a most interesting map giving all the German gun positions discovered by our aeroplanes.... Ours were shown, too, and they outnumber us by about three to one.’ [38] Including Colonel E. O. Wright, A.D.M.S., killed while organizing Ambulance traffic under heavy fire with his habitual gallantry. [39] Sixteen men at a time were stripped, and given three minutes each under a hot shower-bath, their underclothing changed, and their uniform cleaned and fumigated. [40] Wooden grids laid down like duck-boards to obviate the wet and slipperiness of the trenches. [41] See page 14, above. [42] _The Territorial Force_, by Harold Baker (John Murray), page 246.