. The story of the 2/4th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry . ed after its rest atHedauville—on January 15. The first stage onthe rearward journey carried us to Puchevillers, avillage full of shell dumps and now bisected by anew line from Candas to , which had fallen heavily before we leftPuchevillers, made the ensuing march throughBeauval and Gezaincourt to Longuevillette atrving one. The going was quite slippery and theTransport experienced difficulty in keeping upwith the Battalion, especially for the last twomiles. The road marked on the map had by thattim
. The story of the 2/4th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry . ed after its rest atHedauville—on January 15. The first stage onthe rearward journey carried us to Puchevillers, avillage full of shell dumps and now bisected by anew line from Candas to , which had fallen heavily before we leftPuchevillers, made the ensuing march throughBeauval and Gezaincourt to Longuevillette atrving one. The going was quite slippery and theTransport experienced difficulty in keeping upwith the Battalion, especially for the last twomiles. The road marked on the map had by thattime degenerated, in characteristic fashion, to amere farm track across country. The Battalion AT MAISON PONTHIEU, JANUARY FEBRUARY, 1917. 45 was in its billets at Longuevillette by 6 oclock, butblankets arrived so late that it was midnight beforeHobbs could issue them. On the next dav,January 18, the march wras continued through Ber-naville to Domqueur, a distance of 11 miles, onfrost-bound roads. No man fell out. The 2/4thOxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. MAISON PONTHIEU. was one of the best marching battalions in January 19 we reached the promised destina-tion, Maison Ponthieu, of whose billets glowingaccounts had been received; which, as often, werehardly realised. At Maison Ponthieu the Battalion remained fornearly three weeks. Brigade Headquarters, theMachine-gun Company, and some wrere 46 AT MAISON PONTHIEU, JANUARY FEBRUARY, 19 I 7. already in the village—ominous news tor a billet-ing party. Now much snow had already fallen throughoutthe countryside, and the weather since the NewYear had been growing steadily more cold. Inthe middle of January, 1917, an iron frost seizedNorthern France till ponds were solid and the fieldshard as steel. This spell, which lasted a month,was proclaimed by the villagers to be the coldestsince 1890. As day succeeded day the sun stillrose from a clear horizon upon a landscape spark-ling with snow and icicles, a
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