After a long and tiring march from their rest areas, Sergison-Brooke's and Follett's Brigades formed up on the right and left respectively, with De Crespigny's Brigade in reserve south of St. Leger. The attack started under a very good barrage at 5.20 A.M. Reports soon showed that the enemy had withdrawn during the night, and the advance continued without opposition until the old British front line, just short of the Hindenburg line, was reached. By this time the troops were utterly exhausted, having covered since noon the previous day some twenty miles, in full fighting kit and over hilly country.
During the course of the advance a number of prisoners and guns were captured, but the most noticeable feature on the ground which was recovered was the enormous number of the enemy's dead horses which littered and often blocked the roads: eloquent testimony of the work of our aeroplanes and long-range guns, but entailing heavy and unpleasant fatigue work for our tired troops.
On September 4 Follett's Brigade was ordered to push forward, and form an advance-guard for the rest of the Division, but it found that the Germans were holding the Hindenburg line in some force. This prevented any ground being gained, and the line soon stabilised along the Army front.
The principal features of the operations that took place between September 5 and 26 were:
(a) Some fine trench fighting, by which the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel Lord Gort, reached the line of the Canal du Nord.
(b) The heavy and continuous fighting for the village of Mœuvres farther north, during which it changed hands several times before being finally captured and held by the Fifty-second Division.
(c) The heavy gas-shelling, with which the Germans searched all possible assembly positions every night in evident fear of an attack, and which, but for the improved gas discipline, would have caused heavy casualties.
During this period the troops had the satisfaction of seeing two huge German bombing 'planes brought down in flames, on successive nights by our night-flying scouts, working in conjunction with the reorganised searchlight system.
On September 11 Major-General Feilding left to take command of the London District on the retirement of Lieut.-General Sir Francis Lloyd, who had held that command with conspicuous success during the war. For four years Sir Francis Lloyd had occupied one of the most responsible and difficult positions in the Army, and had dealt, especially in the initial stages of the war, with innumerable problems requiring consummate skill, judgment, and tact.