?' I looked at my watch, and said,
'Five minutes.' His reply was, 'Oh, then I've time to finish my
breakfast.' And he did.

"At zero our barrage started, and our first waves were off, the thing
I noticed most being that most of the men were smoking as they went
over. The whole wood was immediately full of machine-gun bullets.
There must have been hundreds of machine guns--up in trees, hidden in
the undergrowth, in fact all over the place. The Hun artillery came
down on all the approaches to the wood, but not on the wood itself so
long as any of their own men were in it.

"Owing to the position of the wood, however, at the apex of a captured
triangle of ground, we received fire from both flanks, and also from
our right rear, as well as from the front.

"The first objective was quickly taken, and then there was a pause
before the advance to the second. A large number of prisoners came in,
and were herded up near Battalion headquarters' trench. We then found
that we were up against the Brandenburg Regiment, which had been
specially sent up to hold the wood.

"A number of these prisoners next got into a shell-hole near Battalion
headquarters, refusing to come farther, and one of the funniest sights
was to see our R.S.M., Sergeant-Major Powney, who, as a rule, was most
dignified, rush at them, and kick and cuff them out of it.

"I said to him: 'Sergeant-Major, that's not your job.' He replied: 'I
know that, sir, but I couldn't help it.' Poor Powney was wounded later
in the day, and died of his wounds.

"The advance to the second objective started promptly, but the Hun
fought hard for a time, and held us up. Every bush seemed to contain a
machine gun, and a redoubt on our left front caused us many
casualties. This redoubt contained several machine guns, with overhead
cover, and a first-aid post. As soon as the C.O. received news of this
check he sent up two reserve Lewis guns. These worked round the
redoubt, and, finding an opening, killed most of the garrison, and
then rushed it. The survivors fled, but Sergeant Royston found one of
their own guns was still in action, and finished them off with it.

"DEALING WITH COUNTER-ATTACKS.--The final objective was quickly
reached and consolidated, and for a while our men had a pleasant time
dealing with counter-attacks from the front. The field of fire was
good, and they quickly dealt with all the attempts made to push us
back. Our casualties, though, were very heavy, particul