On the 17th November the Battalion relieved the 7/Sherwood Foresters in the left subsection trenches, about 300 yards south of the Estaires-La Bassee Road. During this time the Battalion machine guns were positioned in houses on the Rue-de-Bois reserve trench and were able to fire over the front line trench towards the German positions. The Battalion HQ was placed in a small dug-out behind a ruined farmhouse. Although the dug-out was equipped with beds it was infested with rats and for most of the time it was twelve inches deep in water.

The weather in November was very wet and bitterly cold, which meant that the front line trenches were nearly 3 feet deep in water in many places and the men often found themselves with water up to their knees. The sandbags on the parapets were in a dreadful state, most of them were rotten allowing the earth to fall out. In many places the parapet collapsed and needed constant repairing. As conditions worsened during November the front line trenches were abandoned in many places and the Companies retired to the reserve trenches leaving listening points behind to maintain contact with the Germans. Although the men were issued with thigh-length wellingtons, on many occasions these proved quite inadequate and the water often came over the top. Three days later the Battalion were relieved by the 7/Sherwood Foresters and moved back to billets in La Couture; two men were wounded during the three days the battalion spent in the front line trenches.

During the same trench duty the 5th (Derby) Battalion had two men killed; William Allwood aged 28 and George March aged 21, both from Belper. The are buried next to each other at ST. VAAST POST MILITARY CEMETERY, RICHEBOURG-L’AVOUE.

A very poignant letter from Mrs Allwood to the War Office thanking them for returning her son’s possessions (WO363).

The sun shining down on these green fields of France
The warm wind blows gently and the red poppies dance
The trenches have vanished long under the plow
No gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now
But here in this graveyard that’s still no man’s land
The countless white crosses in mute witness stand
To man’s blind indifference to his fellow man
And a whole generation were butchered and damned.