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After the battalion had recovered from Christmas and New Year, we settled down to ordinary camp routine. Each company had a few tanks, all in very bad condition. These were at a tank park about a mile from our camp. Our chief work in the very cold weather we were having was to keep tanks in condition. They had to be run constantly to prevent freezing in the cooling system. Also they had to be moved, as otherwise even the tracks froze! You see, mud always got in between the actual chain track and the rollers which the track ran on. This mud would freeze and become like cement. This was so powerful that if you started your engine and tried to run the tank with the tracks frozen, all that happened was the complete destruction of the transmission. We had enormous trouble with this in all our tank shows in cold weather. All the time we had been standing-to behind Cambrai it had been a constant source of anxiety, as you can imagine, for we were always supposed to be ready for action, and any mistake with this would have meant possible disaster if an attack started.
The work was dull and usually carelessly and badly done. A section from each company would go down each morning and simply clean up the tanks and break up frost by using improvised petrol flares. The remainder of each company was employed in squad drill and so on. This was the official side of our life. But off parade was another thing. Amiens was quite within reach of a car, and an occasional trip to Amiens used to lighten the burden of existence for the officers. Quainton and I went in once or twice and had quite good meals at the Restaurant du Cathedral. The whole time we were at Méaulte we also walked to the officers' club at Albert – about two kilometres off.