ge fell a
long way ahead of us and left untouched a party of the enemy holding
the trench immediately in front of us. This delayed us but for a
moment, but the Somersets were having a good deal of trouble from the
direction of Allaines which had to be dealt with and this took them
and us more to our right than we should have been. The advance was
again momentarily held up by heavy machine-gun fire on the Canal, but
pushing on in most gallant style the leading companies got across all
right and up the slope, driving the Bosche out of the wooden huts at
the point of the bayonet and accounting for a great many at the same
time. So far the advance had gone splendidly. The first objective had
been taken, and the advance begun towards the second when murderous
machine-gun fire was opened upon us from the left and left rear. The
battalion of Londoners on our left north of Moislains had withdrawn,
the village of Moislains itself was never mopped up, and the eight
Bosche machine-guns holding Moislains seeing this moved quickly to the
south of the village and opened on our backs. In addition to this we
were being subjected to very heavy fire on our left flank, which was
now completely in the air, and we could actually see their gun teams
working the 77's on the crest of the ridge. The Bosche had paid us the
compliment of rushing up his best troops to meet our Division, and
certainly the Alpini Corps were most gallant fighters. To advance
unsupported was out of the question, and our casualties were by now
very heavy, so there was nothing left but to withdraw to the west side
of the Canal again and reorganise the remains of the companies. Next
day we pushed forward to the trenches south of Moislains and to the
Slag Heap on the canal bank, and at dusk on the evening of the 4th we
were relieved by the 19th Battalion London Regiment and marched back
to rest and reorganise.

Our casualties had been heavy--the C.O. wounded; of the four Company
Commanders Captain R.W. Stewart and Captain I.C. Nairn had been killed
and Captain J. M'Nab and Mr C.G. Duncan wounded. Mr Darney was killed
and C.S.M. Aitken died of wounds--a total of 3 officers and 38 other
ranks killed and 14 officers and 157 other ranks wounded. The
Battalion got great praise for its gallant performance that day, and
though the attack was apparently unsuccessful we had advanced farther
than the authorities had expected, and, moreover, had the pleasure of
seeing the 230th Bri