A very welcome issue was the new map of Riquerval Woods, made from the most recent aeroplane photographs, and accurate; the old one, compiled from a pre-war survey, still showed as thick forest the ground where the Boche had cut down every vestige of a tree, and its inaccuracies in this respect had been one of our greatest difficulties in the previous battle.  With the map came an issue of officers, five reporting during the afternoon, but as they were all new to the Battalion, they remained with the Stores.

Our march to the Assembly position was tedious, but we were not worried at all by the enemy, for, to avoid Bohain, which was at this time frequently shelled, a track had been taped out across country.  As we were the first to use this, we escaped the usual slipping and ploughing through mud, which are a bad feature of most tracks in autumn.  Lewis Gun limbers and Tool carts went by the road and reached the Andigny-Becquigny Railway line—­our assembly position—­before us, so that as each Platoon arrived it was able to collect its guns and tools and move straight to its position.  We rapidly dug ourselves some excellent cover, and were able to take no notice of some four point twos which arrived during the night, though the other two Battalions, who had to assemble near the Andigny Road, suffered fairly heavily.

At 5-20 a.m. on the 17th the barrage opened and the battle began in a mist, which was thicker even than usual.  Many Tanks accompanied by the Highlanders of the 1st Division, came through our position and passed down the hill towards Andigny, but of our own Brigade we could see nothing, and could only judge by the lessening of the enemy’s machine gun fire, that the attack was successful.  It must be admitted that our attention was somewhat distracted by the appearance of a hare, rather frightened by a Tank, and we forgot the battle to give chase.  It was a short but exciting run, and the victim was finally done to death by “D” Company and provided the Serjeants with a good dinner.  It was not until 10-0 a.m. that we first learnt how the attackers had fared.  On the right our Brigade had taken their Regnicourt road objective, but in the fog several posts of the German front line had been missed and were still causing trouble, preventing the complete capture of the village of Andigny les Fermes, the left of our objective.  In the same way the 6th Division had missed posts in the two farms Gobelets and Bellevue on their front, and we were ordered to send two companies to clean up these places and generally assist with the left of the attack.  A few minutes later, however, this order was cancelled, as the 5th Lincolnshires and 6th Division both reported that they now held all objectives.  Instead, “B” Company (Pierrepont) and “C” Company (Banwell) were placed at the disposal of Colonel Wilson of the 5th Lincolnshires, to exploit his success and patrol the Mennevret road to meet the French, and at 11-30 a.m. these two Companies moved off to the old German