who were led to expect some period of rest when not in the advanced
positions.

After a few days in Beaumetz the Battalion returned to Wailly, and until
June continued to do three tours of duty at Wailly, two in the front line
and one in the village, to one in Brigade Reserve at Beaumetz, the whole
cycle lasting a month.

The enemy having in line opposite the 78th Landwehr Regiment, the sector
was very quiet, though the British did what they could to liven things up
in the way of artillery shoots and indirect machine gun fire at night on
the roads behind the enemy lines.

The general defence scheme at first was not very elaborate. Three
companies manned the front line with one in support. Great attention was
paid to bombing posts, and the defence scheme always contained a plan for
a counter attack by the bombers, who were organised as a separate section,
working directly under the orders of the Commanding Officer. They were
given simple schemes and exercises in counter-attack while in the
trenches. For example the non-commissioned officer in command of a squad
would be told that the enemy had entered a particular sector of the
trench. He would then block the trench or deliver an imaginary counter
attack along the trench with the object of dislodging the fictitious
enemy, as the case might require. The companies were trained to take
shelter in the dugouts in the event of a heavy bombardment and immediately
on its cessation to re-man the front line. In the village when the
Battalion was in support it held three centres of resistance known from
right to left as Petit Moulin, Wailly Keep, and Petit Chateau. Wailly Keep
was a fortified farm on the fringe of the village, with loop-holed walls
and the adjacent roads barricaded. It was a relic of the French defence