CHAPTER SEVEN

HOMEWARD BOUND – EVENTUALLY

Ever economical with words the war diary merely recorded, for the first day of peace for over four years, that,‘There will be no move today’. – Brigade order. In consequence the day was spent in clothing inspections and cleaning up. The usually loquacious divisional diarist was suddenly short of things to write about and recorded,‘Nothing to report’.

This was despite the fact that the division had been told it was not going into Germany and that it had suddenly been transferred to the Fifth Army. While this was certainly good for the men of the battalion as their next moves were to take them closer to home, it was not what many wanted –they had hoped to have been going to Germany as part of the Occupation Army.

On 13 November the battalion marched from Everbecq, through mud, and up and down hills to its new billets in Rigaudyre. Although the Battalion History makes no mention of the now unusual sounds heard on the march, the Divisional Diary is more forthcoming: