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[page 82]
161
13th INSTALMENT.
31st. March, 1917. "The Hun has hopped it." These were the words which spread like wildfire amongst the troops behind the line one day towards the end of February. Various rumours were current as to how far back he had gone and these varied from a matter of yards to fifteen or even twenty miles. Everyone had heard of a possible evacuation to a position bringing Arras, Cambrai and Verdun into roughly one straight line and as it turned out those who staked their faith on this possibility were not far wrong except that instead of xxx going direct back the enemy withdrew by stages.
On our front, the fact of him having evacuated his trenches was detected by a corporal in charge of a scouting party. The night was very dark and yet Fritz' flares usually so plentiful were few and far between whilst his fire seemed to be confined to one machine gun somewhere in rear of his front line and a couple of snipers. After a time the snipers and flares ceased altogether and the corporal who had been sent out to reconnoitre crept up through his barbed wire and looked into his trenches and before daylight the Divisions on our right and left had moved up also. But how far had he gone? Scouts were immediately sent out to get in touch with the enemy, and they soon found him entrenched about a mile back. All this ground was new to us and it had to be carefully gone over before the main troops could be brought up, not at all an easy matter in the dark. However morning found us entrenched opposite him about 200 yards away. The Butte of Warlencourt (a comical shaped hill like Mount Renny in Moore Park) from which the enemy could previously command observation over our territory for miles back, was now behind us instead of