Zero hour for the attack was 5-15 a.m. on November 1st. The evening before, as soon as it was dark, the Battalion moved up into the area south of Maing, where it occupied slits in the sunken roads. These had just been vacated by the 7th Battalion, which had gone forward to the neighbourhood of Caumont Farm, in support to the attack. Here the night was spent, the Battalion having orders not to move without direct word from 147th Infantry Brigade H.Q. At zero hour the men of the 6th Battalion went forward under a splendid barrage. They crossed the river, partly on fallen trees, and partly over light bridges, which were carried forward with the assaulting troops by parties from the 19th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers. They captured and held the Aulnoy--Préseau Road, which was their intermediate objective, and some of them even reached their final objective. But the 4th Division on their right had not been so successful; after getting into the village of Préseau, it was heavily counter-attacked by two regiments of a fresh enemy division from reserve, and was driven out again. Thus, with its right flank uncovered, and having suffered heavy casualties, the 6th Battalion could not hold its final objective. Instead, it dug in on a line in front of the intermediate objective. But the success gained was very great. Several hundreds of prisoners had been taken by the 6th Battalion; indeed, the number of prisoners captured was almost double the total number of assaulting troops, on that part of the front. The first party to arrive at Battalion H.Q. was about 200 strong, and its size caused some uneasiness to the corporal and five men of the 4th Battalion, who were the only escort available. Really they had no cause to worry, for the prisoners were only too glad to be out of it, and all they wanted at the moment was to get well away from the fighting. As soon as they were marched off they started running at such a rate that the escort had hard work to keep up with them. These prisoners were a very mixed lot. Some were fine-looking men, but the majority were of poor physique, and the proportion of quite young boys was considerable. Perhaps nothing showed more clearly the straits to which German man-power had been reduced than the poor specimens who were captured from the 6th (German) Division--one of the active divisions which had invaded Belgium at the beginning of August, 1914, and which had been, throughout the war, one of the enemy’s most famous assault divisions.