20.4.1917 LIEVIN: The Battalion attacked in conjunction with 8th Sherwood Foresters.

1/6th Battalion War Diary [WO/95/2694]

On April the 20th I was detailed to accompany my Company Commander to a detached house standing on higher ground than the remainder of the houses in that area. On getting inside the house we found that it was ideal for observation purposes and that after removing part of the chimney above the roof we could see many miles into the German positions in the direction of the town of Lens. There was plenty of activity on the part of the Germans and with the aid of road and street and even individual house maps I was made familiar with an area which during the next 3 or 4 days was to be patrolled and established as our new front.

This new front would be of course in such a position wherever the Germans had established their new front line and each night I would with a special party of men reconnoitre a selected number of houses and streets that were situated in a general forward direction and which on the map terminated with the outbuildings and slag heap of a coal mine. This sort of warfare was in my opinion going to be very different from anything we had experienced before because any resistance offered by the Germans would have to be outmatched by my Patrol bombing and rooting out from houses still standing and not as before through trenches and No Man’s Land.

[2305/240513 Pte Frank Longson] 

ANGRES 20th: 5th Sherwood Foresters move to MARQUEFFLES FARM in Brigade Reserve. 139 MGC and trench mortar Battery relieve 73rd MGC and TMB. Brigade Schools established at AIX NOULETTE.

139 Infantry Brigade: Headquarters War Diary [WO95/2692]