For the best part of two days the 3rd Battalion Coldstream Guards remained in its advanced positions unmolested. When the men of a German patrol advanced on their usual rounds, they were allowed to enter the trench, and were then quietly made prisoners. On the 29th an officers’ patrol sauntered along down a communication trench quite unconscious of the danger it was approaching; the officer himself and the leading men were made prisoners, but the N.C.O. in rear escaped, although he was fired upon. Presumably he dashed off, and telephoned that the front German trenches were in our hands. It was not long before enemy aeroplanes came soaring over at a comparatively low height to investigate the situation, and then the enemy’s artillery deluged these trenches unmercifully with shells.

However, the Canal had been gained, and the enormous advantage of this could not well be

over-estimated. The attack was started on the far bank, and thus hundreds of men were saved from being killed in the initial stages.

On the night of the 29th the 3rd Battalion Coldstream Guards and 1st Battalion Irish Guards were relieved by battalions from the 2nd and 3rd Guards Brigades. On the left the 1st Battalion Grenadiers and 1st Battalion Welsh Guards from the 3rd Guards Brigade, and on the right the 1st Scots Guards and 2nd Irish Guards from the 2nd Guards Brigade, moved up to take over their attack frontages.

The order of battle of the Guards Division was as follows:

3rd GUARDS BRIGADE
(Seymour)
1st Welsh Gds. 1st Gren. Gds.
(Gordon)(Maitland)
2nd Scots Gds. 4th Gren. Gds.
(Orr-Ewing)(Gort)

2nd GUARDS BRIGADE
(Ponsonby)
2nd Irish Gds. 1st Scots Gds.
(Greer)(Ross)
1st Cold. Gds. 3rd Gren. Gds.
(Brand)(Thorne)

1st GUARDS BRIGADE
(Jeffreys)
2nd Cold. Gds. 2nd Gren. Gds.
(Follett)(De Crespigny)
3rd Cold. Gds. 1st Irish Gds.
(Crawfurd)(Pollock)

The first objective, or Blue line, consisted of Cariboo Trench, Wood 15 Trench, and Wood 15.

The second objective, or Black line, some 600 yards farther on, ran parallel to the Pilckem road.

The third objective, or Green line, was not a line of trenches, but an imaginary line 100 yards beyond the Iron Cross—Kortekeer Cabaret road.

The fourth objective, or Dotted Green line, was not parallel to the others, and while it crossed