On the 154th Brigade front patrols were out north and south of Gavrelle, but the village had not yet been entered. On the right of the Highland Division the 2nd Canadian Division were about 1000 yards west of Pelves, and on the left the 8th Division had occupied the enemy’s front line.
During the night patrols of the 7th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders passed through Gavrelle.
On the following day, 27th August, considerable advances were made, though an attempt to capture Greenland Hill failed.
At 10.30 A.M. the 153rd Brigade launched an attack under an artillery and machine-gun barrage, with the 7th Gordon Highlanders on the right and the 6th Black Watch on the left. The 7th Gordon Highlanders had set foot on Greenland Hill in 1917 under the gallant leadership of Lieutenant Still, but had been unable to maintain themselves there unsupported in their isolated position. On this occasion, too, the hill remained at the end of the day in German hands. Both the 7th Gordon Highlanders and the 6th Black Watch were at first reported to have gained their objectives, but it soon transpired that this was not the case, the German signal for “enemy attacking” having been mistaken for the British signal “objective gained.”
The 7th Gordon Highlanders had succeeded in establishing a footing towards the summit of the western slopes of the hill; but the enemy dribbled strong reinforcements through the railway cutting, and into the trenches and sunken roads leading from it.
This cutting, already referred to as used extensively in the operations in April and May 1917, afforded a covered approach from Biache, from which troops could spread northwards, westwards, and southwards into the trenches and sunken roads on either side of the cutting. During operations, when the smoke and dust allowed, individuals could be seen moving forward or falling back along the cutting throughout the day; but, as a rule, the numbers doing so were so regulated that there were seldom sufficient to justify a large expenditure of artillery ammunition.
In this instance, after much fluctuating fighting, the enemy became so threatening on the flanks of the 7th Gordon Highlanders that they were compelled to withdraw from the position they had gained.
The 6th Black Watch, whose troops were not directly interfered with by the German reinforcements arriving through the cutting, reached a line just short of the summit of Greenland Hill before their advance was checked by machine-gun fire. In this position they maintained themselves for the remainder of the day.
On the flanks of the 153rd Brigade substantial advances were made by the 152nd and 154th Brigades.
Hearing that Greenland Hill had been captured, the 6th Seaforth Highlanders, extended on a wide front from the Scarpe to the railway, attacked from a line east of Roeux and the chemical works, with a line of trenches immediately west of Plouvain as their objective.