Battalion, Leicestershire Regiment, advancing cautiously along the Bohain-Aisonville Road and over the country to the north of this road, were met by heavy machine-gun fire from the edge of the wood. Attempts to enter the wood all along its front were repulsed, the battalion suffering a considerable number of casualties. Later in the day, the 1/5th Battalion Leicestershire Regiment, who had relieved their sister-battalion, made determined attempts to penetrate into the wood. This attack, which was pressed with determination and carried out with skill, at first met with some success, and the leading patrols of the battalion pushed some distance into the outer fringes of the wood. The principal success was achieved by the Headquarters of the battalion, who established themselves in a house on the western edge of the southern lobe of the wood. The companies on either side, however, were driven back by the enemy, and the Battalion Headquarters Staff found itself isolated, enemy forces holding the wood on either side. Aided by nine or ten Frenchmen, who had become separated from the main body of their comrades and who had with them two mitrailleuses, the Battalion Staff put up a very stout fight and managed to hold on to the outskirts of the wood and to the captured house for some hours.
On the 11th October, while this fighting was actually in progress, instructions were issued for the 137th Infantry Brigade to relieve the 138th Infantry Brigade. The 1/5th Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment was ordered to move forward and take over from the 1/5th Battalion Leicestershire Regiment when and where possible. This was easier said than done. A stiff fight was in progress, and the situation as regards the disposition of our own and the enemy's forces was extremely obscure. The C.O. of the Staffords, with his Adjutant and Company
