Chapter 6. Amiens. War Memoirs 1917-1919

Major de Freine, the Company Commander of C Company, had arranged to have his forward H.Q. in the Battalion H.Q. of the

1st ___shire Infantry Battalion, which was in the front line of trenches. He would have these H.Q. entirely to himself as soon as the attack started, because the Battalion H.Q. of the 1st ____shires would move forward at zero hour. He had taken the precaution to move in to some effect. He was a man fond of his creature comforts; in particular, he was extremely fond of port. He had therefore arranged for a case of his favourite drink to be available at the H.Q., together with his mattress.

He made himself comfortable. He was, in this respect at any rate, a good soldier and had no illusions whatsoever about regarding it as desirable to rough it when on active service. No officer who had had any experience of warfare made that mistake, and certainly de Freine was the last man to do it, even had he been an inexperienced officer. When Captain Cook came back to the H.Q., he descended into the depths of the dugout. It must at some time have been a German dugout, for no British infantry every dug so deeply or so securely, making a veritable fortresswork of what the British would ordinarily regard as a mere temporary entrenchment.

De Freine, in his own quiet way, had managed to arrange things previously with the infantry battalion commander, who, of course, would be moving out as soon as zero hour came; it was understood that he would take over possession of the dugout as soon as they left. In the meantime he was disposing himself in a corner, where he had a table and a couple of comfortable chairs, one for himself and one for Captain Cook, his second in command. There were also four runners available who shared the duties of the messengers to various parts of the front, at the same time acting as batmen to the Major. In addition to this, there was his own personal batman, whom he had somehow managed to bring into the army with him – one of his original re