own men who would be intermingled with ours and, in a last attempt to smother the attack on the Canal, laid down a barrage just to the west of it. This was well-directed and powerful, and caused many casualties to all three of the attacking battalions before the Canal was crossed.
The attack was carried out on a three-battalion front, the 1/6th South Staffords being on the right, the 1/5th South Staffords in the centre, and the 1/6th North Staffords on the left. All three battalions reached the west bank of the Canal without too much difficulty, though here and there individual companies were held up by machine-gun posts and opportunity was thus given for the display of initiative by officers and N.C.O.s in overcoming these obstacles. The experiences of the different battalions at the Canal and beyond it, however, differ to such a marked extent that a clearer view of the action can be obtained if their adventures are considered separately and in detail.
On the right the 6th South Staffords attacked in four waves, each of one company, on a front of four hundred yards. Few casualties were suffered in overrunning the German outpost line, and on reaching the Canal it was found to be dry, or nearly dry, on almost the whole battalion front. What little water existed was on the left, and here officers swam across, taking lines with them, their men following without much difficulty on rafts, or by pulling themselves along the life-lines already placed in position by the officers. In the centre and on the right of the battalion front, the attacking troops waded across, or crossed by means of rafts of cork and petrol tins thrown down on the mud in front of them. There was a little wire under the water—where water existed—near the eastern bank of the Canal, but this did
