e others,
also of the Naval Division, came up and swept through them on and up
the slope until they had won a line beyond. After this the first line
caught up with them again, and they all swept on together in a
splendid charge that covered a good 1,500 yards and which brought them
to the very edge of Beaucourt. It was during this operation that a
British battalion commander was wounded, but continued to lead and
animate his men during the entire advance.

Meanwhile the British right center was held up by the redoubt. The
German machine guns, while checking the troops in front of them, also
swept the ground along the face of the slope to the left.

Here the troops of the Royal Naval Division suffered badly, but they
continued to advance under the withering fire, winning the first and
second line trenches, and then, as supports came up on the right,
braving the machine-gun fire, they pushed on across the dip and sunken
road up the slope toward Beaucourt. Here all the troops made a
junction, forming a line on the Beaucourt-Beaumont-Hamel road. Back of
this line the Germans still held the central parts of the trenches,
over the two ends of which the British troops had swept. The redoubt
still remained intact and other important positions were in German
hands.

On the night of the 13th the British battalion commander who had been
wounded during the advance gathered together 600 men, all that could
be spared, from established positions, and with these troops he
purposed to attempt a farther advance. It was while he was gathering
these men together that the officer received a second wound, but still
refused to retire from the field.

At early dawn of November 14, 1916, this officer led his 600 men
against the village of Beaucourt. In less than a quarter of an hour's
hand-to-hand fighting the British troops had won the village. When the
sun shone on the scene of the struggle the British troops were digging
themselves in on the farther side of Beaucourt. It was only then that
the brave battalion commander who had successfully led the attack with
four wounds in his body had to be taken to the rear.

It was on November 14, 1916, in the fighting on the Ancre that the
Scots won special distinction. Their line in the fighting was just
above that taken by the Naval Division, and included Beaumont-Hamel
itself and the famous "Y" ravine. This ravine was such a formidable
place that it merits a somewhat detailed description. Imagi