The following officers joined during August and September:
Lieuts. R. V. Gery, D. J. Leonard, C. Gaskin.
2/Lieuts. S. E. Lyons, H. B. A. Balls, H. Jones, C. C. Spurr, A. G. Sharp, R. Johnstone, W. J. Boutall, F. C. Fanhangel, S. E. H. Walmisley, A. S. Ford, G. L. Goodes and H. J. M. Williams.
In N.C.O.'s and men the Battalion was less fortunate, and up to the end of September 3 N.C.O.'s and 14 men, all veterans of Neuve Chapelle or Ypres, were the only reinforcements from home.
The casualties in officers for the same period were:
2/Lieut. F. F. Hunt, killed.
Capt. H. P. L. Cart de Lafontaine, wounded (shell-shock).
Capts. H. W. Weathersbee and H. M. Lorden, and 2/Lieut. A. G. Sharp, to hospital.
Arrangements had now been completed for the launching of an offensive on the high ground south of La Bassée Canal in the direction of Loos and Hulluch. The opening day of the offensive had been fixed for the 25th September, and as the Indian Corps was not concerned with the main action it will be needless for us here to review the course of events south of the Canal.
North of the Canal, however, a subsidiary operation of some magnitude had been organised with the strategic object of increasing the pressure on the German defences north of La Bassée to such an extent that he would be compelled under the strain of our main offensive in the south to relinquish the La Bassée line altogether and retire to the east of the Aubers Ridge.