Page:Breaking the Hindenburg Line.djvu/90

72 and two field guns at small cost, led his men forward and pushed right through the village. In spite of opposition he managed to secure the bridge across the Canal, and succeeded in cutting off many prisoners and putting several guns out of action. He then organized his company for defence and retained his hold on the village until the arrival of the support companies, when the whole body moved forward and occupied the line of the final objective.

On the left of the attack the 138th Infantry Brigade, advancing from the first Green line, was faced by the strong trench system in front of the village of Magny-la-Fosse, beyond which was a sunken road strongly organized for defence with numerous machine-gun posts. In the capture of this line the tanks of the Brigade played an important part, cutting broad swathes through the wire entanglements, which here had been very little damaged by our artillery fire. Wheeling after their passage through the wire, the tanks then proceeded northward along the line of the trench and sunken road, enfilading them and giving the crews of the machine guns such a bad time that they fell comparatively easy victims to the Infantry pouring through the gaps in the wire. The tanks, closely followed by the Infantry, then advanced towards the village, and, after a little street fighting, the resistance of the enemy garrison was overcome. At 1.15 p.m. the battalion in question, the 5th Lincolns, reached its objective and reorganized, throwing out a screen of Lewis-gun posts, behind which the line was quickly consolidated. In the meantime, the 5th Leicesters, following the Lincolns, reached Knobkerry Ridge by 12 noon and halted there, while company commanders, in consultation with the commanders of the tanks attached to them, made their plans for the attack on the final