In this miniature moving warfare, the Signallers found their task more entertaining than it had hitherto been. Warner one day went so far as to try flag-wagging, until he found that his performance was in full view of the enemy. On another occasion he established a Trench Wireless set to Brigade, which he maintained successfully for an hour, but at the end of that period the whole apparatus was dissipated in the explosion of a German shell. A second effort with new apparatus met with a precisely similar fate.
As evidence of the closeness with which we had followed up the retreating enemy it is interesting to note that at one time Capt. Hacking reported that from his front line, he could hear perfectly plainly both our own Gunners and those of the Boche giving their fire orders.
An incident in the Quarter-Master's Department that was not without interest, was a great ride by our great Quarter-Master. In his anxiety to see that all our wants were provided for (or was it for a heavy wager?), long before horses were allowed so far forward "Harry" Torrance arrived one night at Pigeon Wood mounted on "Buster," having defied the Military Police and all other Traffic Controls. Another unique experience was that of Lieut. Whitton, who for a brief space held the appointment of Town Major of Gommecourt, and was we believe, the one and only person ever to occupy that post of honour. As Officer Commanding 300 dozen Boche mineral waters found in the village, he was a very useful person to know.
On March 14th, we moved back to Gommecourt, where we were finally relieved by the 4th Leicesters three days later. The enemy were retiring very rapidly, and on the same day evacuated Essarts and Bucquoy. Being squeezed out owing to the shortening of the line, the 46th Division began to follow several other Divisions to the back areas, preparatory to taking part in operations in other spheres. Never again did we go to Gommecourt, which we believe is being retained by the French untouched. It will thus ever remain a type of a completely destroyed village, for it is probably one of the worst treated in the whole of France. There were certainly one or two spots where the remains of buildings were still standing, but practically every sign of a once prosperous village had been obliterated. As a type of German fortification it was probably one of the best, containing the deepest and best constructed trenches we ever saw. The wire in front was almost impossible to break through; each line of trenches was protected in much the same way; the dug-outs were deep and proof against all except the very heaviest of shells, and there was a long subterranean passage built by the Boche from behind Gommecourt Wood to his second line, along which reinforcements could be brought in safety to counter-attack any troops that might have gained a footing in the front line. It was sad to find magnificent tapestries and valuable pieces of furniture, evidently taken from the château, which once existed there, adorning the German dug-outs or ruthlessly cut and knocked about, but sadder still to find the bodies of our own Officers and men lying unburied exactly as they had fallen on that fated 1st of July, 1916. It is pleasing, however, to record that the grave of an Officer of the Brigade was found in Essarts with the inscription in English on the Cross: "To the memory of a very gallant British Officer and Gentleman, killed July 1st, 1916."