the village all day. The headquarters of the
7th was in an old shallow dug-out close to the light railway that had
been constructed from Achiet-le-Grand to run eastwards in the direction
of Bullecourt. This railway wound its way through a sort of valley to
the north of which lies Gomiecourt and to the north-east Mory. Due east
on higher ground are Behagnies and Sapignies where the L.F's. were
making such a fine stand. This high ground continues southwards towards
Bihucourt and Bapaume, and it was along this ridge that most of the
day's fighting took place.

During the previous night the 7th had been spread out fanwise in
out-posts covering the shallow valley, and it was not long after
daylight before the enemy began to drop shells indiscriminately about
this ground. "C" and "D" companies were ordered forward to assist the
5th and "A" and "B" were left in support. Tanks came up and they
courageously crawled out over the ridge and did some very sound work
before being knocked out by guns which had been brought up to unwonted
proximity. It was whilst crawling out to rescue a wounded man of the
crew of a tank that Sergeant Heath, M.M., was mortally wounded. The
127th brigade could not be driven from their positions and they dug
themselves in, in small section posts, confidently awaiting nightfall
and the next day's fight. The attacks died down and when darkness came,
digging parties went up to assist in the work of consolidation. Events
as described above, however, had decided otherwise, for about 10 p.m. a
divisional staff officer arrived with orders to fall back to a line of
defence between Logeast Wood and Courcelles.

Casualties had been fairly heavy in this day's work. Capt. J. Baker and
2nd.-Lt. B. Taylor had gone down wounded, while Col. Bromfield, Capt.
Creagh and the M.O. had all been slightly wounded by a shell which
knocked in the entrance to the headquarter's dug-out. They remained at
duty, although the C.O. suffered considerably from an internal bruise in
the stomach which made it impossible for him to walk without assistance.
The arrangements for clearing the wounded became confused when
Gomiecourt was evacuated, for there the Advanced Dressing Station had
been established. Then it was that the Padre displayed his vigour,
courage and resource. He commandeered a hut close to Achiet and had a
large number of wounded from various battalions collected there.
Eventually he was able to get an ambulance which carrie