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[Page 19]
observation being active in the air, orders were issued to lay low. Under the crest of Paschendale the second Bgde crept into holes, which had been hurriedly excavated in the previous advance. Only at night could we come out to wash our dixies & faces in the gully and stretch our limbs.
In front the machine guns rattled incessantly, and shelling from both sides made this sector exceedingly warm and uncomfortable. Through the nights shell-gas drifting back from the gully behind made the position harder to endure. From constant use everyone was expert with the box-respirator. Five days later we were relieved & came back across the Gulley running the gauntlet of the "heavies" out on the Menin Road, and back through Ypres.
From there by easy stages of marching sometimes & sometimes by motor transport we arrived at Halifax Camp for a "rest". But this "rest" was like all the rest of the so-called "rests". Most of the time was taken up drilling & practicing "stunts". One day an enemy plane was seen flying low across the camp. It appearance at such an altitude on a clear day suggested the probability of its being lost. Of course this day flying so far behind the lines attracted a good deal of attention; not only from "ground-targets", that is to say, troops, but from our Lewis guns & antiaircraft guns which opened up a furious barrage on him, but he failed to fall, and as he was driven off he rose.