Page:Breaking the Hindenburg Line.djvu/165

Rh general action on the part of the IX Corps, in conjunction with the XV French Corps on its right and the II American Corps on its left. The object of the battle was to reach the line of the Sambre-Oise Canal.

To the 46th Division were allotted the tasks of turning Riquerval Wood and the capture and retention of the Andigny-les-Fermes Ridge. The success of the Division was of extreme importance to the IX Corps as a whole, for not only did this ridge dominate and protect the whole right flank of the advance, but its possession in British hands also gave room to, and ensured the safety of, the passage of the 1st Division, when they advanced through the 6th Division towards their final objective. If the general assault proved successful, the French, advancing up the southern side of the wood and capturing the village of Mennevret, would then press on round the Forest of Andigny and join hands with the 1st Division about Wassigny.

The general scheme, necessitating as it did an attack from the flank instead of from the front, involved, of course, a drastic rearrangement of the forces of the Division. A glance at the map will show that, instead of driving due east as heretofore, the new attack, in order to be successful in its objects, must be made from almost due north, necessitating a forming-up line in the territory occupied by the Division on our left flank. The obvious line for a flank attack on Riquerval Wood was the Bohain-Vaux Andigny Road, and it was along this road that, on the morning of the 17th October, the day selected for the attack, the 138th and 139th Infantry Brigades took up position for the assault.

The objective allotted to the 46th Division was the Bohain-Wassigny Road, from the north-east corner of Riquerval Wood to the village of Andigny les Fermes,