"At the end of this day of high courage and glorious achievement, except for a few advanced positions, some of which were afterwards regained, our line had been maintained intact. The men who had come triumphantly through this mighty contest felt, and rightly felt, that they had won a great victory, in which the enemy had come against them in his full strength, and had been defeated with losses at which even the victors stood aghast."
Against the corps on our right the Boche had been more successful, and the position on its extreme right was at one time full of peril. Here the enemy penetrated our lines and captured Gonnelieu and Gouzancourt, though he was driven out of the latter village by the Guards that same night. The back areas were very heavily bombarded all through the day, and the D.A.C. in Metz suffered a good many casualties.
Lieut. C. B. Innes was wounded during this day's fighting; Lieut. E. T. Williams was awarded the Military Cross, while Lieut. J. B. Boden added a bar to the decoration which he had earned only eight days before:
"During a strong enemy attack the battery was in action during the whole of the day. For over seven hours the battery was heavily shelled, and during the whole of this period Lieut. Boden was among the guns, occasionally working a gun himself, and setting a magnificent example to the men of his detachment. Finally he was put hors de combat through a shell dropping close by him and stunning him. His cool determination and devotion to duty were magnificent."
"On the battery being heavily shelled, and fired on by machine guns from the flank, orders were received to withdraw. Lieut. Williams remained behind with two guns, the wheels of which had been damaged, but succeeded in getting both of them clear of the position, thereby setting a splendid example of gallantry and fearlessness to the men."
Thirty-three Military Medals were also awarded (v. Appendix).
I handed over artillery command on the evening of the 30th, and rejoined Divisional Headquarters at Haplincourt, to find that all our three infantry brigades had again been thrown into the line in support of three different divisions. I heard to my great sorrow that Brig.-General Bradford, V.C., who had joined the 62nd only about three weeks before, had been killed. He was a man of extraordinary gallantry and great personal charm, and a born soldier and leader of men.
I copy here an extract from a captured document, signed by the Commander of the German army on our front, which was rather flattering to our pride as gunners:
"It is worthy of remark that our enemy's guns have a much smaller zone of dispersion than our own. They also appear to have better and more accurate data for shooting from the map than we have. This seems to be proved from the fact that in weather that excludes all possibility of observation, and under conditions very different from those prevailing during previous shoots, he obtains hits on small targets with great accuracy."