clearing and securing it for the advance of the 18th Infantry Brigade,
while the 71st Infantry Brigade attacked the second objective.

The 18th Infantry Brigade pushed through the 71st Infantry Brigade
and secured Premy Chapel Ridge in good time, and rendered great
assistance to the 51st Division on our left, who were held up at
Flesquieres by guns in the valley picking off the tanks one by one as
they breasted the ridge. The West Yorks and the 2nd D.L.I. each
charged over the Premy Ridge spur and captured a battery at the point
of the bayonet.

At 3.15 p.m. the cavalry, who would have been of the greatest
assistance in capturing the enemy guns holding up the 51st Division,
reported that they could not advance owing to snipers in Ribecourt.
The village had been in our possession since 10 a.m., and the 18th
Infantry Brigade had passed through it at 11.30, and were now two
miles beyond it. However, the cavalry pushed through patrols before
nightfall to Nine Wood.

A company of the 9th Suffolk Regiment successfully carried out its
mission of advancing without artillery or tank support, and capturing
the bridge at Marcoing. The Division had a most successful day, with
very light casualties (about 650), capturing 28 officers and 1,227
other ranks prisoners, 23 guns, and between 40 and 50 machine-guns and
many trench-mortars, and receiving the congratulations of the Corps
Commander. Everything had gone like clockwork: the artillery had
pushed forward to advanced positions to cover the new front before
darkness came on; the machine-guns, under Major Muller, D.M.G.O., were
likewise established in their new forward positions, thanks to careful
arrangements and the use of pack animals; and the 11th Leicesters,
under Major Radford, were repairing and clearing the roads before the
third objective had been secured. The tanks, which had made surprise
possible, were most gallantly handled, and all arrangements most
carefully thought out by Col. A. Courage, D.S.O.

The next morning the 51st Division captured Flesquieres from the
north, and three companies of the 14th D.L.I., moving forward
slightly in advance of them and operating with a squadron of the
Queen's Bays, entered Cantaing ahead of the 51st Division, handing
over subsequently to the 4th Gordons.

The Buffs, with the assistance of the tanks, completed the clearing of
Noyelles (a village some 2,500 yards north-east of Premy Chapel),
which had been entered the previous d