Item 04: Walter Bruce Rainsford diary, 3 January 1917-31 December 1917 - Page 62

[Page 62]

tents and loaded waggons for a start next morning. We left Ebblinghem at 9.30 am next day and joined our Brigade on the main Hazebrouck road. The Units marching out were the 53rd, 54th, 55th & 56th Inf. Battalions, 14th Light Trench Mortar Battery, 14th Field Co. Engrs, 28th A.S.C. & 14th Field Amb.

We followed the main road as far as Wallon-Cappel & then turned off at right angles and kept on to the village of La Longue Croix. After passing this village we bore to the right for tramping along with a full pack & equipment up along quiet dusty lanes bordered with red-berried hawthorn hedges & bushes laden with ripe blackberries. About 1 pm we halted by the side of the road for a hasty midday meal of bread & cheese or jam washed down with the contents of our water bottles. Continuing the march the long line of men, horses & waggons soon arrived at Caestre and on to the Steenvoorde Rd. On arriving at Steenvoorde, a fairly large town near the Belgian border with a pretty steepled Church, the Ambulance broke off from the Brigade, three kilometres further on. Off with pack etc., undress and into the water which, however, was too cold to stay