ARMENTIERES 1914-15 Active fighting now died away on this front, but its place was taken by constant shelling and the deadly sniping which claimed so many victims at this time.

The weather during November and December was truly appalling.

All trenches were knee-deep and more in mud and water, and it is on record that the B.G.C., 19th Infantry Brigade, had his boots sucked off by the mud and went round trenches without them.
Parapets would not stand and were so flimsy that many men were shot through them.

But the weather eventually improved, material for revetment began to appear, and by the commencement of 1915 it was possible to move in the trenches in comparative safety.
The next few months were uneventful ones, the only incidents worthy of remark being a visit from the King on the 2nd December; a minor operation by the North Staffordshire Regiment on the 12th March, resulting in the inclusion in our line of the unsavoury Epinette Salient; the sudden move of the 16th Infantry Brigade to Vlamertinghe at the time of the enemy's attack at St.Eloi in the middle of March, and a little mining and counter-mining on the Frelinghien and Le Touquet fronts in May.

The minor operation at l'Epinette was a very well-planned night affair, whereby the 17th Infantry Brigade advanced their line 200-300 yards on a frontage of half a mile.