Christmas was spent in the huts at Bécourt with a wild gale blowing; the festivities and feastings of the previous year at Authie were not possible, but at least the men could congratulate themselves that they were not in the trenches. On the 28th we moved back through Albert to the village of Bresle, which lies just north of the great straight highway from Amiens to Albert. Here some houses yet remained, and contact was re-established with the vestiges of civilisation. The Brigade, drawn up in a hollow square, was inspected by Lieut.-General Sir W. P. Pulteney, the Corps Commander, and earned his praise. Boxing competitions, concerts and football matches reappeared in the intervals of work. A train journey on January 9th took us to Citerne, a quiet, comfortable village, intact of war, in the French area south of the Somme. The inhabitants were most friendly, accommodation good, and each officer found a bed at his disposal. The three weeks' respite from the rigours of the line was the more appreciated as the great cold had now set in, which was to continue with almost unmitigated intensity until the middle of April. There was much to be done in the way of training, for the new platoon organisation had now come into force. Its object was to make the platoon a self-contained unit of specialists, with its four sections divided into riflemen, Lewis gunners, bombers and rifle-bombers. This was obviously to require from the average man a higher standard of specialisation than before, and consequently threw greater responsibility on the platoon and section commanders. It was, in fact, found impossible during the course of the 1917 campaign fully to attain this ideal, as the time available for the training of new drafts was not generally sufficient. Another train journey on January 28th took the Battalion by a circuitous route through Amiens, past Villars-Brettoneaux to Hamel, two names destined next year to become famous in the fighting history of the Australians. Hamel was soon exchanged for Cappy, a village high above the southern bank of the Somme, overlooking its great loops, and the widespread marshes and pools all frozen stiff. Although only about 2,000 yards behind the trenches from which the French started to the assault of Frise on July 1st, it was not badly knocked about. Houses and barns were available for billets, but the men suffered considerably from the cold, as fuel was very scarce, and the frost was now at its height, the thermometer marking 20 or more degrees of frost every night. Then followed a few days in the great French Adrian Huts, each holding a Company, in a camp by the edge of the Somme Canal a few hundred yards further east.