Hattencourt. Estrees. Herbecourt. Chantres. Assevillers. Frise. _R._ 24 8 50 66 39 16 _L._ It will be seen that General Watts' command had increased from two divisions to six, but it is doubtful whether the whole six had the normal strength of two. The new line had not yet been completed and was essentially unstable, but none the less it formed a rallying point for the retreating troops. It should be noted that from the morning of March 25 General Fayolle took over the command south of the Somme. The Twenty-fourth Division, which had suffered so severely in the first two days of the action, was again heavily engaged during this arduous day. In the morning it had been directed to counter-attack in the direction of Dreslincourt in co-operation with the French Twenty-second Division. In the meantime, however, the whole situation had been changed by the right flank of the Eighth Division being turned, so that General Daly's men as they went up for the attack were themselves heavily attacked near Curchy, while the junction with the French could not be made. They fell back therefore upon their original position where hard fighting ensued all day, and a most anxious situation developed upon the southern flank, where a wide gap existed and the enemy was mustering {132} in force. Colonel Walker, C.R.E. of this division, was killed that day. [Sidenote: Nineteenth Corps. March 26.] On the morning of March 26 the new line had been occupied. The Seventeenth Corps had retired in the night to the Bray-Albert line, which left a considerable gap in the north, to the west of Frise, but this was filled up by an impromptu line made up of stragglers and various odds and ends from the rear of the army. It was in the south, however, that the attack was most severe, and here it soon became evident that the line was too long and the defenders too weak, so that it could not be maintained against a determined assault. Before the sun had risen high above the horizon it had been shaken from end to end, the Twenty-fourth Division being hard put to it to hold Fonches, while the Sixty-sixth were driven out of Herbecourt. At 9.30 the order was given to withdraw, and with their brave rearguards freely sacrificing themselves to hold back the swarming enemy, the troops--some of them in the last stage of exhaustion--fell back upon a second position. It was at this period of the battle that Major Whitworth, the gallant commander of the 2/6 Manchester's, stood at bay with his battalion, which numbered exactly 34 men. He and 17 of his men were dead or wounded after this last stand, and 17 survivors were all that could be mustered that evening.