down one side and up the other of the dry Canal in order to capture a machine-gun with a crew of nine who were lying amid the broken end of a bridge on the farther bank. Jackson unhappily did not survive to receive the Cross which he had won. In the meantime the Sixty-second Division, now under General Whigham, passed through the Third Division, and continued their victorious career. Two companies of the 8th West Yorkshires got forward as far as the north-west outskirts of Marcoing and Nine Wood, but were exposed to a raking fire from the high ground on the south side of the Ribecourt valley, so had finally to fall back. That night the Sixty-second continued to hold its advanced line while the Second Division took the place of the Guards, and all was ready for the further advance next morning. On September 28 the Sixty-second dashed forward as soon as it was light, and were soon in possession of Marcoing. There was no severe resistance. The Second Division on the left kept well in line with the Yorkshiremen, and were soon the masters of Nine Wood. By 10 o'clock the steady flow of the British infantry had enveloped Marcoing Copse, and the 186th Brigade had reached the Canal, where several bridges were found to be still intact. Noyelles had fallen to the Second Division, who were now fighting over the ground which {213} they had held in the old Bourlon days, only nine months ago in time, and yet seeming so far off on account of the great succession of events which had elapsed. Some attempts were made to get across the Canal, but the Germans were there in strength, and nothing could be done without deliberate preparation. In the evening the Sixty-second extended its boundaries, and consolidated what it held. A small party of the Second Division got across the Canal during the night, but were unable to establish any permanent bridge-head. In the morning of September 29, however, one brigade of this division made a lodgment upon the farther side, and remained there, though with wire and machine-guns before them. Pontoons were brought up during the day and many bridges thrown across. The Sixty-second meanwhile had cleared Les Rues Vertes and Masnières and was well to the east of those villages.