Oct. 9.
Zero was 6 o'clock on the morning of October 9, and the assembly area for the 1st Guards Brigade was on the line of old German trenches, south-west of Seranvillers. Taking up its position on the left of the line, the Battalion had the 2nd Battalion Coldstream Guards on its right, with the 1st Battalion Irish Guards in reserve. In conjunction with this force, the 2nd Guards Brigade was to advance on the left and the New Zealand Division on the right, and the boundary between the two leading battalions was the main road through Seranvillers and Wambaix.
It had been arranged for the barrage to descend on the first objective, and so the 2nd Battalion Grenadiers and 2nd Battalion Coldstream were able to start moving slowly forward ten minutes before zero hour. No. 3 Company of the Battalion, under Captain Cornforth, was on the right and No. 4 Company, under Lieutenant Palmer, on the left, while No. 2 Company, under Captain Wilson, was in support, and No. 1 Company, under Lieutenant Holbech, in reserve. The foremost companies advanced in waves, and the supports and reserves in artillery formation, preceded by strong patrols, Captain Wilson's company being responsible for clearing the village of Seranvillers. Two howitzers, a field-gun, several machine-guns, and a few prisoners were captured without any real opposition, and the Battalion pushed on very rapidly to within a short distance of Cattenières, where the patrols were sent ahead through the village.
But as soon as they emerged from Cattenières, and came on to the ridge to the north they were held up by heavy machine-gun fire from the wood surrounding the factory at Ignies-le-Petit. There was a considerable stretch of open ground in front of the wood, and progress became very difficult. Lieutenant Palmer, commanding No. 4 Company, ordered Second Lieutenant Osborne to try and advance with his platoon on the left in order to enfilade the enemy in the south-east corner of the wood. A certain amount of ground was gained by sectional rushes under extremely heavy machine-gun fire, but the complete lack of "dead" ground made real success impossible, and Major Walker decided to postpone any farther move until it could be made under cover of darkness.
A wonderfully gallant piece of work during this part of the fighting was done by No. 16796 Private Edgar Holmes, and won for him the Victoria Cross, which unfortunately he did not live to receive. He was acting as a stretcher-bearer, and calmly and fearlessly went on with his errands of mercy to the wounded under a withering machine-gun fire. He succeeded in getting two men in, and, quite regardless of the intense fire at close range, was attending to a third when he was himself hit in the stomach. He did not falter for a moment, and, paying no attention to his own wound, went forward once more to rescue yet another of the fallen. He had covered thirty yards in the direction of the enemy when he was hit again, this time fatally.
At 1 A.M. on October 10 Major Walker brought up the support and reserve companies, and directed them to attack the wood and factory at Ignies-le-Petit. They rushed the factory, encountering little resistance, and then took up a line and dug in on the farther edge of the wood, beyond the main road. The whole advance was a complete success, and the casualties of the Battalion were only one man killed and 12 wounded. Four hours after the attack began, the 1st Battalion Irish Guards passed through the Battalion, and went in pursuit of the retreating Germans.
For the week that followed the Battalion was in Brigade Reserve, and moved slowly forward through Fresnoy Farm, Bévillers, Quiévy, Boussières to St. Hilaire, when it prepared for the forthcoming attack.
In the operations on the 20th the officers engaged were:
| Major C. F. A. Walker, M.C. | Commanding Officer. |
| Lieut. S. T. S. Clarke, M.C. | Adjutant. |
| 2nd Lieut. A. F. Alington | Intelligence Officer. |
| Lieut. L. Holbech, M.C. | No. 1 Company. |
| Lieut. C. L. F. Boughey | " " |
| 2nd Lieut. E. M. Neill | " " |
| Capt. G. B. Wilson | No. 2 Company. |
| 2nd Lieut. D. L. King | " " |
| 2nd Lieut. C. J. N. Adams | " " |
| Capt. L. St. L. Hermon-Hodge | No. 3 Company. |
| 2nd Lieut. K. B. Bibby | " " |
| 2nd Lieut. E. G. Harcourt-Vernon | " " |
| Lieut. H. B. G. Morgan, M.C. | No. 4 Company. |
| Lieut. C. C. Cubitt | " " |
| 2nd Lieut. B. R. Osborne | " " |
| Lieut. E. L. Coffin | Medical Officer. |
This attack was only part of a very extensive movement on the whole of the Third Army front. The Sixty-first Division was ordered to advance on the right of the Guards Division, and the Nineteenth Division, under Major-General Jefferies, on the left. Acting as the leading battalion on the right of the Guards Division, the 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards had the Valenciennes—Solesmes road as its first objective, and, for its second, a line about a quarter of a mile west of the villages of Vertain and Romeries. The capture of Solesmes, which was known to be full of civilians, and strongly held by the enemy, was entrusted to the Sixty-first Division, while the Guards Division was to push right on to its final objective. This gave the Battalion the delicate and dangerous task of advancing the whole way with an exposed flank. Two other features added to the difficulty of the manœuvre. The long distance to the final objective had to be traversed under cover of darkness, and before it could reach the outskirts of Solesmes, known as St. Python, the Battalion had to cross the River Selle.