ut no
attack developed. The same evening the Division was hurriedly
withdrawn from the line, and heading in a southern direction arrived
in the neighbourhood of Tilloy and prepared for instant action.

In spite of the favourable conditions, our foes made little or no (p. 074)
ground, throughout the day, on the whole of the Army front, and were
held in our forefield. Further south, much the same thing happened,
although they penetrated further in some places, but nowhere had they
broken through, so the news on the whole was good and reassuring.

The German attack was renewed on the following day, and still the
Northern Army remained firm, but they succeeded in effecting a serious
breech in the Army to the south, where the British had lately taken
over from our French allies. So swift was the enemy's progress at this
point that our troops on either side of this bulge soon became
endangered, and a general retirement was immediately necessary in
order to keep the line straight.

This applied to the Northern Army also, but not to anything like the
same extent. The Division again moved south, and took up positions
behind the Henin Ridge, between the village of that name and St.
Leger, for the purpose of covering the retirement.

The whole line thus became mobile, and, for several days, a stiff
rear-guard action was fought, which resulted in very heavy casualties
being inflicted on the enemy. He was by this time flushed with his
success further south, and attempted to advance as if he were already
the conqueror, which led to his own undoing, as virtually he was only
permitted to gain ground at our time and will. It cannot be denied,
however, that the days were anxious ones and the infantry were kept
very heavily engaged and became much exhausted. However, they made the
most of their opportunities, and had hitherto rarely found such ready
targets, and their machine guns effected great execution on the enemy
ranks as the men came along laden with full packs. A story is told,
and is believed to be true, of one machine gunner that, in the course
of his morning's work, he slaughtered over 200 German's single handed
with his weapon, after which he became a raving lunatic and had to be
forceably removed.

The infantry, too, admitted that they were getting tired of killing
Boches, and the casualties inflicted on our men were a mere nothing as
compared with those suffered by our foes. The gunners were equally
busy dropping into