The captures during the fighting from the 19th to the 31st October numbered 9 officers and 431 other ranks, 13 guns (including two 5·9-in. howitzers), 12 trench-mortars, and 61 machine-guns.
The total captures during a period of between six and seven weeks, in which the Division had seen much stiff fighting, and had suffered over 6,000 casualties, amounted to 96 officers, 3,505 other ranks, 32 guns, 52 trench-mortars, and 527 machine-guns counted.
The infantry of the Division saw no more fighting, but its artillery remained in till the end, finishing up in the neighbourhood of Avesnes.
Among the many casualties which the artillery suffered must be mentioned Major W. S. Ironside, D.S.O., M.C., commanding 112th Battery, R.F.A., who was killed east of Le Cateau on 2nd November. He was among the then much reduced number of those who had landed originally with the Division in France in 1914, being then a sergeant.
Very little mention has been made of the services of the Royal Engineers during this period. Exceptionally heavy work was thrown on the signal sections, owing to the frequent changes of headquarters, but they were untiring in their devotion and met each emergency with resource. To the Field Companies fell the dangerous task of taping out the jumping-off lines for the attacks, but they invariably achieved this difficult task to the complete satisfaction of the brigadier-generals and units concerned in the operations.
It is inevitable in a short History like this that the services of the administrative branches should not receive the same notice as those of the purely fighting portions of the Division, but the History would be incomplete without some reference to them.
The Field Ambulances showed throughout the high devotion to duty which has always characterized the Royal Army Medical Corps. The work of the bearer sections during actions always elicited the admiration of the infantry, while the tent sections were frequently under shell fire, which, however, in no way interfered with their care of the wounded. Both at advanced dressing stations and tent sections many of the chaplains rendered most valuable assistance in carrying and helping wounded men, while during trench warfare they were frequently to be found with their men in the forward trenches.
In the action of 18th September 1918, Lt.-Col. Collins, D.S.O., and Major German, both of the R.A.M.C., and also Father FitzGibbons, were killed by shelling at a tent advanced dressing station.
The work of our Army Service Corps has always been the envy and admiration of our Allies, and that of the 6th Divisional Train was up to the highest standard of the British Army. The acknowledged excellence of the horses and mules of the Division is a tribute to the efficiency of the Veterinary Section and of the horsemasters attached to the artillery, as well as to the mounted branches.
In spite of the amusing comments of "The Fancies," the life of the Military Police was not all beer and skittles. The control of the traffic at some of the cross-roads, favoured by the Boche heavy gunners, was nerve-racking in ordinary times, and tenfold more so during an action, and several awards were given to the Divisional Military Police for gallant conduct under these conditions.