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148 the Brigade, while down the centre of the battalion front ran a slight ridge which divided the area of attack into two nearly equal halves. It was impossible to see more than five yards ahead and the centre company, losing direction, gravitated down the slope of the ridge towards the east and so left the summit practically untouched. The first obstacle to the advance—machine-gun nests on some high ground where a little copse gave shelter to the machine gunners—was overrun without difficulty and, on the extreme right and left of the attack, good progress was made. The right company, in particular, experienced little opposition, reached its final objective without trouble, and commenced to dig in. A sudden lightening of the mist, however, betrayed the presence of this company to some enemy machine gunners who were strongly posted in a clearing on the Regnicourt Ridge which overlooked the position. Promptly seizing their opportunity, the enemy turned a concentrated machine-gun fire on this company and inflicted heavy casualties, the survivors experiencing the greatest difficulty in hanging on to their exposed position.

The clearing of the fog, however, had also given the officers of the attacking battalion their first chance to obtain a general idea of the situation, and the centre company, who had found themselves somewhere immediately west of Andigny les Fermes when the fog lifted, commenced to work their way back across the front towards the scene of the setback, being joined on their way by the Reserve Company. At the same time, Lieutenant M. E. Thomas, R.E., of the 465th Field Company, who was attached to the 8th Sherwoods for the attack, gallantly collected a party of N.C.O.s and men from various units who had become mixed up in the attack and led these men, together with the sappers