Immediate steps were taken to consolidate the village and to connect up firmly with the Fiftieth Division on the line of Starfish Trench, and with the Canadians on the line of Gunpit Trench, the general final position being as shown in the diagram. The trophies upon this occasion amounted to 13 machine-guns, 3 field-guns, 3 heavy howitzers, and about 700 prisoners. There was a counter-attack upon the morning of September 16, which was easily repulsed: and afterwards, save for constant heavy shelling, the village was left in the hands of the victors, until a few days later the Fifteenth was relieved by the Twenty-third Division. Whilst this brilliant advance had been conducted upon their left, the Fiftieth Division, the same north country Territorial Division which had done such vital service during the gas battle at Ypres, had carried the trenches opposed to them. They had no village or fixed point at their front with which their success can be linked; but it may be said generally that they kept the centre level with the two victorious wings, and that in the evening of September 15 they {241} extended from the Starfish trench on the left to the new position of the Forty-seventh Division upon the right. This position was a magnificent one, for High Wood had been finally taken, and the British line had been carried forward by these splendid London battalions, until in the evening the 140th Brigade upon the right had been able to join up with the New Zealanders upon the Flers line. Advancing upon a one-brigade front, with the 6th and 15th London in the lead, the London territorials, after one slight check, rushed the wood, and by 11 o'clock not only had it in their complete possession but had won 150 yards beyond it, where they consolidated. Two tanks which had been allotted to them were unfortunately unable to make their way through that terrible chaos of fallen trees, irregular trenches, deep shell-holes, and putrescent decay, which extended for a third of a mile from south to north. The wood now passed permanently into British hands, and the Forty-seventh Division has the honour of the final capture; but in justice to the Thirty-third and other brave divisions which had at different times taken and then lost it, it must be remembered that it was a very much more difficult proposition to hold it when there was no general attack, and when the guns of the whole German line could concentrate upon the task of making it uninhabitable. So much for the capture of High Wood by the Forty-seventh Division. Speaking generally, it may be said that each of the three divisions forming Pulteney's Third Corps was equally successful in reaching and in retaining the objectives assigned for the attack.