From the Aisne we travelled in the usual fashion, thirty-six to forty in a horse-box, vi St. Denis to Boulogne, where we stopped until 3 p.m. on the Sunday afternoon of October the eighteenth. As usual, many rumours were afloat, the strongest being that we were going on garrison duty to some quiet little place, to pick up strength once more. That quiet little place turned out to be Ypres! The reason of our stoppage in Boulogne was that a train in front of us, also a troop train, had met with an accident; seventeen men had been killed: so we had to wait whilst the line was being cleared. We were supposed to stay with the train, but a good many men went into the town. Consequently the train moved off suddenly, leaving one hundred men and three Officers behind in Boulogne. They eventually joined us, each man receiving fourteen days Number One Field punishment.

Leaving Boulogne, we travelled some way up the line, detraining at a small station called Arneke. Early next morning they marched us on to Cassel, where we stayed one day, marching out next morning in brigade order. We proceeded vi Beaulieu and Poperinghe, resting for the night a few miles north of the latter place.

The following day we proceeded very slowly, and scouts were sent out to our right into a wood on the look-out for the enemy. Evidently everything was in order, as we advanced through that wood during the night. On the way we met many horse-ambulances returning filled with wounded. Emerging from the wood, we arrived at the town of Boesnighe, and that night we found billets there. Moving off early the next evening in a south-easterly direction, after marching the whole of that night with fixed bayonets and hushed voices, we went into action the next morning.