ing prisoners, 5 entered our trenches without
securing any prisoners, and 12 were entire failures. Three of the
enemy's attempted raids yielded us prisoners, and 4 yielded
identifications. The low average of prisoners taken by us in
successful raids is attributable to two causes--first the
extraordinary precautions taken by the enemy in the latter part of the
period to avoid losing prisoners by evacuating his trenches on the
slightest alarm or remaining in his dug-outs, and secondly the
fierceness engendered in our troops by the severity of the
bombardment, and particularly of the trench-mortaring to which they
were normally subjected.

A very successful battalion raid by the 1st The Buffs on the 24th
June, which yielded 15 prisoners, might have made a better showing if
it had not followed closely on the receipt of the mail containing
accounts of an enemy bombing raid on Folkestone.

It is invidious to differentiate among so many carefully prepared and
gallantly executed enterprises, but a reference to the successful
battalion raid of the 11th Essex Regiment on the 24th March, to the
raid carried out by the 14th D.L.I. on the 15th June, in the early
morning which caught the Germans at breakfast, and particularly to the
combined raid by the 2nd D.L.I. and the 11th Essex Regiment on the
28th June, will perhaps be forgiven. The latter was an exceptionally
fine performance. It was carried out in connection with the operations
of the 46th Division already referred to, by one company from each of
the two battalions. Everything possible had been done beforehand to
induce the enemy to expect attack on the front of the Division, yet
these two companies succeeded in establishing and maintaining
themselves for one hour in the enemy's line, though constantly
counter-attacked. They inflicted very heavy casualties on the enemy,
who counter-attacked both over the open and by bombing along the
trenches. It was on this occasion that 2/Lieut. F. B. Wearne, late
11th Essex Regiment, won the V.C. Mention ought also to be made of the
very gallant repulse of an enemy raid by the 1st K.S.L.I. and the 1st
The Buffs on the 7th July. In one post of the 1st K.S.L.I. one wounded
Lewis gunner, the only survivor of his post from the enemy
bombardment, kept his gun in action and beat off the raiders.

On the 25th July the Division was relieved by the Canadians, with a
view to an attack by the latter on Hill 70, and withdrew into rest in
the Monch