We shall now for a moment turn to the left flank of the First Army in the south which had so far, in spite of heavy attacks, lost very little ground. It has already been described how the Fifty-fifth Lancashire Division stood like a rock at Givenchy and Festubert, while the Fifty-first and afterwards the Fourth Division struggled desperately to hold back the attack on their left. The former had been relieved on April 16 by Strickland's First Division, while the Highlanders and Fourth Division also had been drawn out, and gave place to Deverell's Third Division, which had done so splendidly and lost so heavily upon the Somme. {294} After the repulse from the Fifty-fifth Division, the Germans had contented themselves with shelling Givenchy, but they had pushed on, as already narrated, to the north of the position, and had got as far as Locon. The result was that the First Division had a long frontage which faced due north and a shorter frontage to the east. [Sidenote: Southern Area. April 16.] The Fourth Division held the front at this period to the east of Robecq, being on the right of the Sixty-first, with the 184th Brigade between them. It was used on April 14 for a counter-attack which was carried out at night, and which achieved a local success by the recapture of the village of Riez, with 150 prisoners. This operation was carried out by the 11th Brigade, with the 1st Hants and 1st Somersets in the lead, and was a very workmanlike little action which was the more valuable when coming at a period of general recoil. [Sidenote: Southern Area. April 18.] On April 18 the new German attack upon the First Division at Givenchy began with a bombardment of great violence. Their plan upon this day was to carry Givenchy and Festubert by storm, and to win the line of the canal as far west as Gorre. They would then capture the high ground at Hinges, and so command the canal right up to Robecq. No doubt they calculated, and with justice, that if they could overcome the men on the spot they would find that the reserves had all been drawn away to the north. Their plan was wrecked, however, by the fact that the men on the spot were not to be overcome. Eighteen German battalions moved forward to the attack, and all of them suffered heavily without gaining any appreciable advantage. So heavy was the slaughter that many German companies were {295} reduced before evening to twenty or thirty effectives, while the three battalions of one regiment were left under the respective command of one lieutenant and two sub-lieutenants. There have been few more costly failures, considering the scale of the operations, in the whole campaign.