amount of work to
repair and improve.

The operations of the field companies during this most trying time are
worthy of the best traditions of the Royal Engineers.

4. On the evening of the 14th it was still impossible to decide whether
the enemy was only making a temporary halt, covered by rearguards, or
whether he intended to stand and defend the position.

With a view to clearing up the situation I ordered a general advance.

The action of the First Corps on this day under the direction and
command of Sir Douglas Haig was of so skillful, bold, and decisive a
character that he gained positions which alone have enabled me to
maintain my position for more than three weeks of very severe fighting
on the north bank of the river.

The corps was directed to cross the line Moulins-Moussy by 7 A.M.

On the right the General Officer commanding the First Division directed
the Second Infantry Brigade (which was in billets and bivouacked about
Moulins), and the Twenty-fifth Artillery Brigade (less one battery),
under Gen. Bulfin, to move forward before daybreak, in order to protect
the advance of the division sent up the valley to Vendresse. An
officer's patrol sent out by this brigade reported a considerable force
of the enemy near the factory north of Troyon, and the Brigadier
accordingly directed two regiments (the King's Royal Rifles and the
Royal Sussex Regiment) to move at 3 A.M. The Northamptonshire Regiment
was ordered to move at 4 A.M. to occupy the spur east of Troyon. The
remaining regiment of the brigade (the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment)
moved at 5:30 A.M. to the village of Vendresse. The factory was found to
be held in considerable strength by the enemy, and the Brigadier ordered
the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment to support the King's Royal Rifles
and the Sussex Regiment. Even with this support the force was unable to
make headway, and on the arrival of the First Brigade the Coldstream
Guards were moved up to support the right of the leading brigade (the
Second), while the remainder of the First Brigade supported its left.

[Illustration: Map 8.--Sept. 10 to 12. Showing the Germans' headlong
retreat to their intrenched positions beyond the Aisne.]

About noon the situation was, roughly, that the whole of these two
brigades were extended along a line running east and west, north of the
line Troyon and south of the Chemin-des-Dames. A party of the Loyal
North Lancashire Regiment had seized and were holdi