went. No great amount of resistance was expected from the retiring enemy and none was encountered, but, to guard against the possibility of a counter-attack, these mobile troops were closely supported by Infantry and forward sections of Artillery.
The advance continued without check during the day and, at 11.50 p.m., the 1st Division and the 126th French Division succeeded in effecting a junction at Wassigny, squeezing the 46th Division out of the line.
In all the delicate and anxious work of clearing these forest obstacles, a main feature of the operations was the close liaison maintained under difficult circumstances between the French and the 46th Division. Again and again, in order to envelop some more than ordinarily difficult obstacle, French and British troops were compelled to separate with the intention of meeting again on the farther side of the strong-point or wood in question. Continually during the fighting our flank troops, or the French, were extricated from serious situations by their Allies, and throughout the troops worked together with the greatest camaraderie. The only visible effect of their fighting alongside one another was an obvious desire to excel in gallantry and in courtesy. Considerable difficulty was experienced in gaining touch, and unfortunate contretemps occurred, as when, at Forester's House, a French officer, advancing through the open under the impression that the post was already in our possession, was shot down at point-blank range by German machine gunners. On the same occasion, further fighting resulted in a junction being effected about 200 yards south of the post, and here perhaps the "Entente Cordiale" reached its highest pitch. French "poilus," themselves exhausted by a day's hard fighting, insisted on emptying all their water-bottles and presented our men with the last drops of liquid
