Digging was both difficult, for the ground was sodden, and dangerous on account of the number of “dud” shells and bombs everywhere.  Two men of “B” Company were injured by the explosion of a grenade which one of them struck with a shovel, and the next day Captain Moore had a miraculous escape.  Clearing the trench outside his Company Headquarters, at the junction of “Horse” and “Hell” Alleys, he put his pick clean through a Mills bomb; fortunately it did not explode.  Padre Buck also had a busy time, for there were many unburied dead still lying about.  Hearing of one body some sixty yards out in No Man’s Land, where it had been found by a patrol, the Padre went out with his orderly, Darby, to bury it.  It was a misty morning, and they were unmolested until suddenly the mist lifted and they were seen.  Darby was wounded in the head, and they were heavily fired on, but this did not worry the Padre, who brought his orderly back to our lines, and came in without a scratch.

We remained only seven days in this sector, and did not come into contact with the enemy at all at close quarters.  A few bombs were thrown in the Bois Hugo trenches, and a raid by the 11th Division on our right caused a considerable amount of retaliation to fall on our heads, but on the whole the enemy was quiet, and we had practically no casualties.  There was not time to learn the ground well enough to do any extensive patrolling, though Lieut.  Watherstone earned the Divisional Commander’s praise for a bold reconnaissance from the Bois Raze.  The transport had as bad a time as anyone, bringing rations on the light railway through Loos, which was never a pleasant spot.  Once again a mule succeeded in falling into a trench, and it took R.S.M.  Lovett and a party of men more than an hour to extricate it.

The 4th Battalion took our places at the end of the tour, and we marched back to Mazingarbe.  Our billets had been slightly improved, and Headquarters now had a house in the Boulevard, commonly called “Snobs’ Alley.”  While here a new horse, a large chestnut, which arrived for the Padre, caused considerable commotion in the Regiment.  First he bolted with the Padre half-way from Mazingarbe to Labourse, when he finally pulled him up and dismounted.  He then refused to move at all, and went down on his knees to Padre Buck, who was most disconcerted, especially when the animal moaned as though truly penitent.  The next day the Adjutant tried to ride him, and once more he bolted.  This time his career was short, for horse and rider came down on the Mazingarbe cobbled high road, and the Adjutant had to go to Chocques hospital with a broken head, and was away for a week.