under a barrage of eight brigades of Field Artillery and
eighty machine-guns. The IX Corps employed on this occasion 172
60-pounders and heavy howitzers.

In the evening of 16th October Brig.-Gen. H. A. Walker, commanding
16th Infantry Brigade, which was to attack on the left the next
morning, most unfortunately lost his left arm by a shell, which blew
it off so cleanly that his wrist watch was recovered by his orderly
and was still going. Brig.-Gen. P. W. Brown, commanding 71st Infantry
Brigade, then in reserve, took command until the arrival of Brig.-Gen.
W. G. Braithwaite.

During the night 16/17th October the enemy poured gas shells into Vaux
Andigny, causing considerable casualties both to the troops forming up
just outside and to those who had to pass through a little later. Zero
was at 5.20 a.m., and the attack commenced in a dense fog, which in
the fan-shaped advance caused a good deal of loss of direction,
although the 18th Infantry Brigade on the left had laid out long
direction tapes to give the troops the initial direction.

The latter brigade was held up at the start by uncut wire, which
caused it to lose its barrage. It also encountered a good deal of
opposition on Bellevue Ridge. It was, however, carried forward by the
oncoming waves of the 1st Division, which were to pass through to a
further objective, and together the troops of the two divisions
made good the objective of the 18th Infantry Brigade. The fog was
so dense that all direction was lost, although the 11th Essex Regiment
took the unusual precaution of sending its men forward arm-in-arm.
Notwithstanding every precaution troops of the 11th Essex eventually
fetched up at Regnicourt, which was on the right of the objective
allotted to the 46th Division, who attacked on our right. Troops of
all three divisions also reached Andigny les Fermes, which was in the
objective of the 46th Division. The 16th Infantry Brigade was more
fortunate, and was assisted in maintaining its direction by the
railway, with the result that it gained its whole objective in good
time and with very little trouble. The day's captures were 26
officers, 599 other ranks, 5 trench-mortars, and 82 machine-guns.

The 1st Division having passed through, the 6th Division was now
withdrawn from the line to the neighbourhood of Bohain for a day or
two.

On the night of the 20th/21st October the Division was again put in,
relieving the 27th American Division and a part of the 25t