The Division returned to the front line on the night of April 1-2, the 125th Brigade and the 1/7th Northumberland Fusiliers holding the right sub-sector, and the 126th Brigade and the three Field Companies, R.E., the left, with the 127th Brigade in support. All three infantry brigades had their headquarters in Essarts, a village on which a disproportionate amount of “hate” seemed to be concentrated. On the night of the 2nd the 125th Brigade raided a new enemy work east of the Bucquoy—Ablainzevelle road and established a strong point in the work; and at 2 a.m. on the 3rd the 32nd Division, on the left of the 42nd, made a successful attack upon Ayette, capturing 200 prisoners, and establishing a line east of Ayette. At 5 a.m. on the 5th of April the 125th Brigade front and the neighbourhood of Essarts were heavily shelled, gas being freely used. The 126th Brigade, moving into support trenches at Essarts, suffered very severely, the 10th Manchesters losing more men than in the whole of the previous twelve days fighting. H.E. and gas shells alternately poured down for the space of five hours. The night was pitch-black, as the men stumbled along the muddy trenches, unable to see or breathe. The trenches, already a foot deep in mud, were described as “slime and blood, carpeted with bodies.” But when the bombardment lifted, the men extracted their dead and wounded comrades, and resumed their tasks, their resolve to “best the Boche” being no whit abated. The Composite Battalion, also near Essarts, had fifty casualties, and the Divisional Artillery also suffered, though less severely. At 8 a.m., under cover of a trench-mortar hurricane bombardment, which inflicted very heavy casualties, not only among the front-line troops but also in the reserve companies, and completely destroyed a machine-gun section, the enemy attacked and succeeded in throwing back the left of the 8th Lancashire Fusiliers, the two companies being wiped out almost to a man. The 7th L.F. and the right company of the 8th were able to hold their ground, and the latter began to work its way up the trench to the north, but was forced to fall back when nearly surrounded, owing to the retirement of the left company of the left battalion of the division on its right. All lines being down, communication was bad, but at 11.40 a.m. orders were issued that the survivors of the 8th L.F. must eject the enemy at once. They counter-attacked, and at noon reached the main cross-roads in Bucquoy, where hand-to-hand fighting took place amid the ruins of the village. Lieut.-Colonel St. Leger Davies[16] was mortally wounded by machine-gun fire, and Captain G. W. Sutton, M.C. assumed command and successfully organized the consolidation of the line regained until he, too, was severely wounded. Very fierce fighting continued, and two platoons of the 5th L.F. were brought up. The counter-attack progressed favourably until the line of the Bucquoy—Ayette road was reached, when it was held up by