ion was
twelve months. Happy is the army that is attacking! Only when the enemy
has full possession of the initiative is leave entirely cut off.

Of the 5 P.M. attack carried out the night before by the --th Brigade,
all that we knew was that unexpectedly large numbers of the enemy had
been met. The fighting had been fierce, and the Boche still held some
of the ground the Brigade had set out to take. Right through the night
our guns had been busy firing protective bursts.

The mystery of the Boche's unlooked-for strength was explained by a
Divisional wire that reached us about 8 A.M. It stated that a prisoner
captured by the --th Brigade said that at 7 A.M. on the 18th,
following urgent orders resulting from the British offensive at 5.20,
a whole Boche division came by bus from Maretz, fourteen miles back.
Their mission was to make a counter-attack that would win back the
original line. They deployed at Bony, near the canal, and completed
their march in readiness for an attack at 6 P.M. But the 5 P.M. thrust
by our --th Brigade completely surprised them, and in fact broke up
their offensive. The prisoner also reported that many casualties had
been caused by our artillery fire.

The brigade-major, telephoning at 9 A.M., told us further details about
the main offensive of the day before. The hold-up on our left had
continued until late in the evening, in spite of renewed attacks on a
big scale. "The German Alpine Corps have some of the stiffest fighters
we have run against for a long time," he went on. "On the outskirts of
Epehy one post was held by three officers and forty-five men until 7.45
P.M. When they surrendered there were only seventeen not wounded."

The sunken road we were occupying led towards the red-brick,
modern-looking village of Templeux-le-Guerard. A German encampment,
quite a large one, containing several roomy huts newly built and well
fitted up, stood outside the eastern edge of the village. The colonel
had just pointed out that any amount of material for the improvement of
our Headquarters was to be had for the fetching, and I had despatched
the wheeler and a party of servants and signallers to the German
encampment when the telephone bell rang.

It was the brigade-major again. "We're doing another attack," he said
cheerfully, "to finish the work started last evening.... I want you to
open on line F 10 c 2.0 to F 16 b 0.8.... Dwell there till 11.20....
Then creep 1100 yards in a north-easterly d