were ordered on the 7th October to attack and capture two machine-gun nests on the Sequehart-Mericourt Road, and the battalion suffered very heavily in the attempt. The assault was made as part of a converging attack carried out by the 6th Division and the 126th French Division on our left and right. These Divisions were to advance inwards and so cut the 139th Brigade, to which the Monmouths were attached, and which was acting under the orders of the G.O.C. 6th Division, out of the line.
At zero, plus ten minutes, “B” Company of the Monmouths, led by Captain W. P. Abbott and supported by a heavy trench-mortar bombardment, advanced to the attack of the machine-gun posts, but was met by an annihilating fire, the two platoons that led the attack being practically wiped out. Lieutenant-Colonel J. Jenkins, M.C., commanding the battalion, personally organized another attack and led forward four more platoons to the assault, but this attempt also was beaten off with heavy loss, Colonel Jenkins and his Adjutant being both amongst the killed.
The attack was then abandoned, having cost the battalion eight officers and seventy men killed and wounded, but it had served its purpose by engaging the attention of the defenders of the trench while the men of the 6th Division worked round from the rear. The garrison of these posts was thus cut off completely from succour, and later in the day surrendered, over 250 men with twenty machine guns and two trench mortars being captured in this work alone.
On the night of the 8th October, the 138th Infantry Brigade relieved the 16th Infantry Brigade of the 6th Division, and were instructed to get into touch with the French, who were believed to be in Fontaine
