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The turmoil of the last few days was now succeeded by a complete calm in which scarcely a gun spoke. On September 30th we were relieved in due course by the 6th Gloucesters, but went not to Authie, which was considered too far away, but to Souastre, a village in the area of the 37th Division, five kilometres west of Fonquevillers.
The 5th Gloucesters were already in their objectives, and the left flank was secured. A section of the R.E.'s following closely up helped to put the defences of 79 in order. There were now, owing to casualties, no officers with A Company, but there was no lack of direction or control, thanks to Sergeant White, an old Territorial of many years standing.
Among the regiments that led the attack of the Eighth Division were the Kensington Battalion of the London Regiment, the First Gloucesters, the Second Sussex, and the Northamptons. They were supported by the Liverpool Territorials, the First North Lancashires, the Second King's Royal Rifles, and the Sussex Territorials.
Our course of instruction at the Parapet-etic School was brought to a close late in the evening when we shouldered our packs, bade good-bye to our friends the Gloucesters, and marched back in the moonlight to our billets. I had gained an entirely new conception of trench life, of the difficulties involved in trench building, and the immense amount of material and labor needed for the work.
Then we heard heavy rifle fire far away on our left, where the Gloucesters and Royal Irish Fusiliers had been sent out the night before, and were now on the verge of that terrible disaster which has kept us all anxious and uncertain to-day. The rumour goes that both battalions have disappeared, and what survives of them will next be found in Pretoria.
The three Battalions which remained were now arranged in 'depth, a phrase explained by stating that while one, say the Berks, held the front line 'twixt Fayet and Gricourt, the Gloucesters as Support Battalion would be in Holnon Wood and ourselves, the Oxfords, in reserve and back at Ugny.
Altogether, two regiments of cavalry 5th Lancers and 19th Hussars the 42nd and 53rd Field Batteries and 10th Mountain Battery, four infantry battalions Devons, Liverpools, Gloucesters, and 2nd King's Royal Rifles the Imperial Light Horse, and the Natal Volunteers. Once more, it was fighting. The head of the column had come within three miles or so of Modderspruit station.
It was A Company's position as support to the Gloucesters, who went into the line. The Battalion spent a week at Holnon village. A line of trenches linking up 'strong points' had been designed to guard the ridge which overlooked Fayet and St. Quentin.
Within four days Colonel Dick-Cunyngham, of the Gordons, Colonel Chisholm, of the Light Horse, Colonel Gunning, of the Rifles, and now Colonel Wilford, of the Gloucesters, had all fallen at the head of their regiments.
Next day detailed orders were issued for the attack of the 145th Brigade. The two assaulting Battalions, 4th Oxfords and 5th Gloucesters, were allotted a frontage of about 500 yards a-piece. The right flank of the Oxfords rested on the Anzacs at a point some 500 yards west of Pozières. We were in support to the Oxfords, and, therefore, concerned only with their objectives.
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