1st Brigade holding Bapaume Road to north-east Courcelette. 2nd and 3rd Brigades round Quarry, north of Courcelette to Fabeck Graben. (R.28.c.3.6.) Continued severe bombardment of our lines. A strong enemy patrol attacks our new post on the Bapaume Road, but is repulsed, though another attack gains him footing in our advanced posts near the Cemetery.
September 25th.
1st and 2nd Divisions in front line preparing for offensive. Canadian Corps to co-operate with II. Corps in capture of ridge running north-west of Courcelette to the Schwaben Redoubt. The 2nd Division objective a new German trench north of Courcelette—the 1st Division to take the Kenora and Regina Trenches by way of the Zollern and Hessian lines. Later the 1st Division objective is shortened and changed to a point on the West Miraumont Road.
September 26th.
At 12.35 p.m. the 1st and 2nd Divisions attack and, after heavy fighting, partially occupy the Zollern, Hessian, and Kenora Trenches. On the right the 29th and 31st Battalions are held up in their operations north of Courcelette, but after several determined attacks succeed in gaining their objective. The enemy resist stubbornly, and during the night bombard Courcelette and the whole front line. The left of the 2nd Brigade is badly hampered in its operations by machine-gun fire from Mouquet Farm and Stuff Redoubt. Representations made to the 11th British Division on the left, who, at 6.30 p.m., report the official clearing up to the Farm.
September 27th.
In the morning the 2nd Brigade attacked the Hessian Trench and drove the Germans back towards Regina Trench, only to lose the greater part of their gain in a strong hostile counter-attack about 1 p.m. A fresh attack was made in the afternoon and the whole regained and held. At 6.30 p.m. it was reported that the Germans had withdrawn from their line between the Bapaume Road and the Courcelette Trench, and our patrols were busy establishing posts in the North and South Practice Trenches, along the Dyke Road, and towards Regina Trench between the east and west Miraumont Roads.
On the left hostile reinforcements had arrived and driven the 14th Battalion from Kenora Trench to a line of defence some 200 yards south-west.
September 28th.
Cavalry reconnaissances find enemy in Destremont Farm and in strength in the Le Sars line. 4th Brigade pushing forward north of Courcelette, and bombing parties fighting their way towards Regina. On the left the 1st Division repulses a determined attack against our Hessian Trench and our posts about Kenora Trench. Our line in process of construction from Bapaume Road to Dyke Road to East Miraumont Road to a point 150 yards up Courcelette Trench and south to Kenora Trench, to Hessian as far as the Courcelette Road. The enemy massing troops, and an intense bombardment by our artillery silences many batteries and breaks up hostile formations. 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th Brigades in front line.