“With best wishes,
“Yours sincerely,
“ROBERT CHARLES BALDWIN, Sgt.”

Sergeant Baldwin was awarded the Military Medal for his services on July 31—­August 1, 1917.

Having reproduced the personal narratives of our experiences at Ypres, first by myself and then by my platoon sergeant, it is now desirable to see what happened to the Battalion as a whole.  For this it will be necessary to quote the official account in the Lancashire Fusiliers’ Annual.  After mentioning the machine-gun fire which caused me to extend my platoon the account goes on to say: 

“This fire was so heavy that it not only inflicted severe casualties, but caused confusion in the shaking out into extended order, and it is to be believed that from this moment the correct formation was never absolutely regained.  Machine-gun fire was active chiefly from Wine House, Spree Farm, parts of Capricorn Support and Capricorn Keep, Pond Farm, Hindu Cot and other points.  Seeing that they could not advance till these points were dealt with, the commanders of the leading waves took steps to take the first points, such as Wine House, Spree Farm, Capricorn Support.  These were dealt with at considerable loss, some enemy being captured, some killed and some running away.  It was difficult to obtain a definite account of all the incidents that happened before the Black Line was reached, but great gallantry was shown by the officers and N.C.O.’s in rallying and leading the men in face of heavy fire.  The Commanding Officer, Lieut.-Colonel B. Best-Dunkley, put himself at the head of all men in his immediate vicinity, and led them on through intense machine-gun fire.  Ultimately the Black Line was reached.  The casualties up to this point may be estimated at anything up to 50 per cent of the total strength of the Battalion.  However, the advance had to continue and that quickly, as it was impossible to wait to reorganize under the heavy fire; moreover, the advance was timed to a programme of artillery.  The advance to the Green Line, the Gravenstafel Switch, 6,000 yards from our original front line, therefore continued.  Few details necessarily are obtainable owing to the heavy casualties.  The creeping barrage, not a heavy one, certainly not sufficient to deal with the country up to the Green Line, had run away from us.  Many more casualties were suffered, but the Battalion eventually reached its objective.  Digging in and consolidation at once commenced.  Captain J. R. Bodington, commanding left Company, reached Wurst Farm with ten men, this number being shortly reduced by casualties to two.  The Green Line had only been in our possession for about twenty minutes when the first enemy counter-attack, consisting of two companies, commenced.  This came from a north-easterly direction, sweeping across the front of the division on our left.  It was very determined, as the division on our left had not been able to get up; our left flank was quite unprotected.