th a counter-attack drove the 1st The
Buffs back slightly, but was unsuccessful against the 8th Bedfordshire
Regiment on the right. An advanced post of the latter battalion put up
a very fine defence and maintained its position. A further attack on
this battalion on the following day again failed to shake the defence.

On the 16th April a systematic bombardment of the trenches on Hill 70
was commenced, and authority was given for a slightly greater
employment of force. Attacks on the 18th and 19th April, by the 1st
K.S.L.I. and the 8th Bedfordshire Regiment, gained some ground and
gave us between forty and fifty prisoners.

By this time continuous fighting, under very trying weather
conditions, had exhausted the 16th Infantry Brigade. In order to
maintain the pressure it became necessary to withdraw battalions from
the front of the other brigades and to put them straight in on the
offensive front, replacing them by the battalions withdrawn from that
front.

An attack by the 14th D.L.I. on the 21st April in conjunction with the
left of the 46th Division, who by this time had relieved the 24th on
the right of the 6th Division, yielded thirty-five prisoners and two
machine-guns, and disposed of a strong machine-gun nest on the Double
Crassier Railway which had been holding up our right. Two
counter-attacks were repelled, and on the 22nd April the 14th D.L.I.
and the 11th Essex Regiment delivered a combined attack. The 14th
D.L.I. secured the whole of their objective, with forty-six prisoners
and three machine-guns, but the 11th Essex Regiment was unable to gain
any ground. The 46th Division had been prevented by uncut wire from
co-operating in the attack, with the result that the 14th D.L.I.,
after enduring a very heavy bombardment with exemplary determination,
were eventually sniped and machine-gunned out of the captured line
from the houses on their right. Eventually the position stabilized
itself, with the enemy in possession of Nash Alley.

During ten days the Division had been engaged in continuous fighting
on the front of one brigade, whilst holding with the other two a front
of approximately 7,000 yards. Four battalions from other brigades, in
addition to its own four, had passed through the hands of the 16th
Infantry Brigade which was conducting the fighting. Battalions
relieved from the fighting front one night were put straight into the
line elsewhere on the following night, and battalions which had
already