In June 1917 P Hoole Jackson of the Manchester Regiment described the build up before the battle of Ypres.

"The Menin road was a river of mud, in which our boots sucked and slipped.

Down one side of it came horses, limbers, wagons, ambulance cars (and) guns - all at full speed. The horses seemed to know they were coming into danger, their hoofs thrashed  about us as they flew down to the rear, their drivers sitting stolidly, using the whip now and then, smoking as they drove.

There was no restrictions needed there. Up the other side (of) the road a slow procession of vehicles crawled, one behind the other. New guns going up into positions, ammunition wagons full of shells, ambulances bound for the clearing stations, ration carts for the troops in the line.

Piccadilly could not have been more crowded and all over these German shells moaned and whined. Now and then a cart would have to be pulled round a heap of wreckage that had once been men, horses and wagons. By the side of the road lay the stiffening carcasses of horse and mules".

Private William Reginald Dick from the Gloucestershire Regiment wrote about going back to the Front at La Vacquerie on the 3rd December 1917.

"The file closes in to the left bank and I see the centre of the road is blocked by a dark mass. A sickly reek pervades the air as we skirt a trail of wreckage, a couple of splintered limbers, the black heaps that are dead mules and some of the passing feet ring against a steel helmet half crushed in the mud.

I am thankful for the merciful darkness".

Source "True World War One Stories" Jon E Lewis.