Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III THE WAR AT LAST On November 5th The Day arrived, and we went up to Bailleul, on the borders of France and Belgium, in motor 'buses. Bailleul was then about six miles behind the firing line, where the desperate First Battle of Ypres was still going on; the Germans had been driven out only ten days before, and had stripped the place bare of provisions, though otherwise the place was not damaged. We felt we were properly " for it" now; the guns were roaring all the time, and aeroplanes buzzing about everywhere. Next day we were marched up to the top of a hill to try and see something of the battle, but unfortunately there was a thick mist, and nothing could be seen; but it was very interesting, and one could but feebly imagine in those days what was happening away out in that mist, a great drama being played with no one to look on and applaud. During our stay at Bailleul we saw one of our Brigades, I think it must have beenthe 20th of the 7th Division, marching back to a well-earned rest after being relieved by the French. They had been in .the trenches continuously for three weeks, and had all long beards; I remember being very much impressed by their terribly tired but still determined look, and wondering how we poor amateurs would look if we had to undergo the same ordeal. On November 7th we moved to Estaires, some nine or ten miles south; we marched in the pitch dark, and the roads were terrible, all slimy mud, and altogether it was a very trying performance, being our first real active service march. We spent two nights .there, rather a jumpy time on the whole, as we expected .to be pushed into the battle any moment; and the unknown is always alarming. On the 9th we moved seven miles further South to a little place called Leslobes, due west of Ne...