At 5.15 a.m. the enemy again put down a very intense trench mortar barrage on the left, which probably killed any men left in the front trench south of the Cambrai Road. At the same time the enemy could be seen jumping from shell-hole to shell-hole in front of Le Fosse Farm. We now fired S.O.S. signals, and opened rapid fire on the enemy. On the centre of our front line the enemy were about 100 yards away in front of the wire. The men in this part of the line afterwards stated that they were still confident that they could hold them up. Suddenly, however, it was seen that the enemy were working round our flank. An attempt was at once made to form a flank defence, but the casualties had been so great that this was found impossible, and practically no officers were left. Those remaining, therefore, had to fall back rapidly. So quickly did the enemy come round the flank that the signallers and others in the advance Battalion Headquarters (old 44th Brigade) were not able to get out in time to escape.

The extreme right of the Battalion had also been severely shelled along with the left of the 3rd Division. Here, too, the enemy broke through. From the Battalion Headquarters we now saw the lines of the 3rd Division front being driven back, and shortly afterwards our own men were seen retiring. The officer on the right had thrown back a platoon to try and form a flank defence, but soon found the enemy working round his rear and forcing him to withdraw. The withdrawal was carried out in an orderly fashion, a covering fire being kept up with Lewis guns and rifles, the men behaving splendidly, which says a lot for their morale, as by this time most of the officers had been killed, and it must be remembered that many of the men were young recruits who had just come through their first experience of a hurricane bombardment.

At no time was the shelling so severe on the centre of our line as it was on the flanks. It is more than probable that the bombardment was so withering that the men on the flanks were wiped out before the enemy attacked. This seems to be proved by the fact that no officer or man belonging to the three platoons on the left or the platoon on the right, and only 1 man of the next two platoons, returned; in other words, only 7 men returned out of 6 platoons. The smoke and dust were such, however, that no one could see more than a few yards, and in any case it was impossible for us to see what was occurring to the north of the Cambrai Road, as at this point it is raised by an embankment.

The front line Companies Headquarters were in machine gun nest dug-outs in front of our wire. They were rushed early in the attack. No-man's-land certainly was a bad place for Company Headquarters, but there was no better location available. By 8.15 a.m. we had formed a new front line running north along the switch line, being in touch with the 8/10th Gordons on our right and the 6th Camerons on our left. By this time there were probably not more than 150 other ranks and 3 Company officers remaining. As, however, the 6th Camerons were on our left, some of the men naturally got intermixed with them. The Battalion Headquarters were by this time in the front line, and all the Headquarter officers and men were used in the defence of the line. It was one of the advantages of having the Battalion Headquarters worked more or less on the principle of a Company, that this was so easily carried out: each Headquarter officer had his own section of men, and the men knew under whose command they had to place themselves.

The C.O. now consulted with Captain Wood, commanding the Company of the 8/10th Gordons, who at once took in hand the collection of ammunition, which was rather short in the new trench, from the dump at Shamrock Corner and the old trench systems. This distribution was successfully carried out. It is only right that we should refer to the splendid assistance given to us by Captain Wood. He was one of the few remaining officers who came out with the Division. He therefore had a wide experience in fighting, and shewed as usual that coolness, disregard for danger, and sound judgment with which we all associate him.

After the consultation the C.O. decided to try and counter-attack the enemy and establish a line along the old support trench in the Brown Line. We sent off messages asking for artillery support for 9.30 a.m., when we proposed making the counter-attack. We could not get Brigade on the 'phone, the wires having probably been cut. We sent off pigeons, but the bombardment had been too much for them, and it was only after considerable amount of stone throwing that we got them to fly at all. We sent messages also with the buzzer set, but the annoying thing about both pigeon and power buzzer messages is, that one never knows whether they have been received or not. The artillery support never came, and we held back the counter attack till 10.30, as we did not wish to advance in case we should walk into our own fire. As a matter of fact not one of our messages ever got through.

About 10.30 a.m. the C.O. received a message from the O.C. "A" Company 6th Camerons, who were on our left, stating that his flank was now in the air, and that the enemy were as far back as Feuchy Chapel Crossroads on his left and rear, and he asked what he should do. Instruction were sent him to try to form a flank defence so as to get in touch on his left, but to hold his ground at all costs whatever happened. This information definitely decided us to give up the idea of counter-attacking. In order to get a clear idea of the situation, the C.O. went along the front line to the 6th Camerons, and found they were holding the front in good strength. There was not much doing in their immediate front, but evidently some of the enemy had penetrated along the Cambrai Road to their left rear. Three Vickers gun teams which were in the trench were instructed to get into position where they could defend the flank, if necessary. On returning to the Battalion he ordered a certain number of men to get back into the strong points directly behind the line, and thus increased the depth of our defence.

About 1 p.m., as the line was now well organised, the Headquarters were withdrawn to those of the 8/10th Gordons. The instructions issued previously were that if the front line went the Headquarters were to withdraw immediately. As it turned out, however, it was not possible to withdraw the Headquarters earlier, as they had to be used in the defence of the line. Almost as soon as we arrived (1.30 p.m.) orders were received that the whole line was to be withdrawn to the "Army" line, and instructions were sent forward accordingly. Orders afterwards came through that we were to hold the position we had, but by the time they arrived we had already moved back. The Headquarters were again withdrawn to those of the Reserve Battalion (8th Seaforths), and shortly afterwards we withdrew the Battalion to some old trenches. Lieut. Gibb, however, and a few men remained with the 8/10th Gordons, and during the afternoon this party accounted for many casualties amongst the enemy by sniping them with the Lewis gun which had been attached to Headquarters. At 1 o'clock in the morning we received orders that what remained of the Battalion were to go back and join the Transport at Wanquetim. We could not muster more than 30. Only one Company Officer got back. Some more men came in next morning, but the total number that returned from the fight never reached 100. Luckily, several officers and men who had been left out at the transport line form a nucleus round which to reconstruct the Battalion.

To sum up: the enemy's barrage fire successfully annihilated our right and left flank, the evident intention being to surround those left in the centre. All the officers of the front Company being casualties, the line was methodically withdrawn under N.C.O.'s. The support Companies had more or less the same experience. No officer or other rank returned from the platoons on the flanks, and out of the 4 Companies 1 officer and about 150 other ranks returned to the switch line. The men at all times shewed a good fighting spirit. The rapid fire, together with the subsequent sniping which was brought to bear on the enemy must have caused him heavy casualties. It was noticed early in the fight that the enemy brought up a light gun with pack animals. He also mounted several machine guns, which caused heavy casualties when the line was withdrawn from the switch line. The total casualties for the day were:—