the next objective. The country over which the fresh attack was to take place was of a much more open nature than that which had been the scene of the exploits of the Staffords, and the enemy's defences were not suitably sited for an attack from the direction from which he was now threatened. Towards the southern limit of the objective of the Division the St. Quentin Canal sweeps round at right angles and runs east and west for several thousand yards before bending back again in a south-easterly direction. It was along this portion of the Canal that the assaulting troops would now advance, the Canal itself thus forming a strong defensive flank. The principal support lines of the Hindenburg trench system were disposed parallel to the Canal, and thus ran more or less parallel with the direction of our advance. They had therefore already been partially turned, our troops advancing up them instead of in face of them. The solitary exceptions, and they were exceptions which had to be taken very much into consideration, were the strong lines of trenches running in front of the village of Magny-la-Fosse and the defences of the village of Lehaucourt itself. These were both very strong trench systems which mutually supported each other, though both villages might be outflanked by an advance along the ridge between them.
The advance to the next objective, the first Green line, which was carried out in the same fog as the earlier part of the attack, was, on the left flank, almost without incident, the Brigade meeting with little determined opposition and not having to employ the tanks allotted to it. On the right flank, however, very stout resistance was experienced from strongly-posted enemy detachments on the high ground to the north of Bellenglise. Here, the whole attack was held up by strong artillery fire from
