The tedium of the 58-hour journey northwards in the trucks of the French Military train was relieved at the outset by the exquisite scenery of the Rhone Valley. The fresh green of the trees and rich grasser, the early flowers in the meadows, and the sunny woodlands, tricked out with the blossoms and pageantry of Spring, were in striking contrast with the monotony of the parched desert. The troops were in the highest spirits. With lively curiosity they eyed the riverside mansions and trim villages, and exchanged pleasantries with the fisherman on the banks and the cheering girls at the station. A detour was made round Paris. There-after the grey rain-sodden skies, bleak country and bitter winds of the north formed a more appropriate setting for the grim business that lay-in front.
Divisional Headquarters had proceeded by mail train to the concentration area, of which Hazebrouck was the centre, and the advanced party reached the railhead, Steenbecque, on 13th April. The troops began to arrive there on the 15th. Divisional Headquarters and the artillery were at Blaringhem. The 1st Infantry Brigade was concentrated round Morbecque, the Rifle Brigade round Steeubecque, and the 2nd Brigade round Roquetoire. The transport personal, with the horses, had been detrained at Abbeville to be issued with wagons. They trekked the remaining 60 miles in 3 clays. For animals just landed from a 6 days' voyage and a 2 days' train journey this proved a severe trial, even with empty wagons. The transition from the warmth of Egypt also affected them, especially the mules, and one or two animals died. The artillery were in a similar way diverted to Havre, where, with remarkable expedition, they were equipped with vehicles and guns, and despatched to the concentration area by train.
Thus assembled in the last week of April, the Division passed again under the command of the I. Anzac Corps, which in its turn formed part of the Second Army under General Plumer. The 2 Australian Division had in the middle of April taken over a sector of the front line system from Fleurbaix to Armentières. Corps Headquarters was at the picturesque village of La Motte, amid the oaks elms and beeches of the extensive Forêt de Nieppe. This concentration area was somewhat more diversified by wooded declivities than is usual in the Département du Nord. Amid the unfenced fields, intensively and untiringly cultivated by women and old men, lay the agricultural villages, each marked by its tall church spire, its red brick houses, its substantial tree-shaded chateau on the outskirts, and its slatternly farms with clay-walled byres and insanitary manure-heaps in the courtyards. In the near neighbourhood was the ancient fortress-town of Aire. From the uplands one commanded a wide view of the lowlying country as far south as Lens, where the slag-heaps and high pit-heads looked for all the world like transplanted pyramids. In these flats the British Command had staged their first costly but useful experiments in the offensive. From that direction occasionally a dull far-off rumble was audible, and in the evening, beyond the glow of the blast furnaces near Aire, the rockets and flares of the trenches described slow parabolas on the screen of the dark heavens.