The first tour of four days was quiet, except for some gas shelling, which the Boche was doing much more extensively now, especially about sunrise and sunset, when he was particularly fond of dosing Battalion Headquarters at Le Hamel, and Essars and Gorre. At the latter place the château and the wood were the favourite targets, and on several occasions were absolutely drenched with gas. At this time it was mainly "yellow cross" or "mustard" gas that was used, a very deadly gas, affecting any part of the body exposed to it, and particularly dangerous when the sun was up. A certain amount of "green cross" or "phosgene" which was decidedly dangerous, was also used, as well as a little "blue cross," which apart from making one sneeze had no very ill effect, unless inhaled in large quantities. During this tour we did little except get used to the new conditions, and try to find our way about. It was the simplest thing in the world to get in front of the outpost line without knowing you were there, and on occasions people were even discovered in No Man's Land asking for the support line! Visiting the posts in the front line was also at first more or less a matter of conjecture, but in course of time most of them were joined up by a continuous trench. At first the novelty of it all amused us, and after all it was a very welcome change from ordinary trench life.
It was during the first tour that we had the great misfortune to lose a very gallant Officer and sportsman--H. K. Simonet. He had moved his Company Headquarters from an unprotected shell-hole to a cottage at Les Façons, in the outpost line itself, only to get a direct hit on it almost immediately which resulted in Simonet and his runner, Pvte. Garratt, one of the most reliable and gallant men in the Battalion, being badly wounded. Neither recovered, and they were buried near each other in the Cemetery at Lapugnoy. A most capable Officer, of fine leadership and magnificent character, "Simmy" was liked by all and his loss was felt most keenly throughout the Battalion. He was succeeded in command of D Company by Lieut. Warner, whose place as Signalling Officer was taken by 2nd Lieut. Stephenson.
On April 28th, we were relieved by the 5th Leicesters, and moved back into Divisional Reserve at Fouquières, where we stayed four days, during which the chief excitement was that we had to stand to in the early hours of May 1st, as there were rumours of another German attack, which fortunately did not mature.