On October 9 the troops were going forward shortly after dawn. It was soon found that the Germans had retreated, leaving only a few devoted machine-guns to impede the pursuit. Gard Wood and Clary were occupied by the Thirty-third Division, who came on so rapidly that they picked up a battery of field-guns near the village and captured the officers drinking in an estaminet, quite unconscious that their enemy was upon them. Bertry was occupied by the 19th Brigade, and before evening Troisvilles had also been captured. On the left without any opposition at all, the 51st Brigade of the Seventeenth Division passed through Malincourt, Selvigny, and Caullery. The German machine-guns made some show at Montigny, but the place was soon occupied, as was Tronquoy. There was no barrage this day in front of the Fifth Corps, and the advance was one long cross-country chase of six or seven miles, with an occasional skirmish. Early on the morning of October 10, the Thirty-third Division crossed the Inchy-Le Cateau Road, and with the mention of the latter name that huge circle seemed at last to be nearing completion, the line of which had begun to {223} describe its strange curve in August 1914. The soldiers knew that the graves of their comrades were at last within their reach. The Seventeenth Division on this day flowed through Audencourt and Inchy, and the 7th East Yorkshires actually got up to Neuvilly in a fine attack, but had to be withdrawn. The Selle River in its shallow valley lay right across the Corps front, and this, as was clear from the increasing artillery fire, marked the new German front. Here we may leave the Fifth Corps while we hark back to bring up their comrades of the Third Army. On the evening of October 11, the situation was that the Thirty-third Division on the right had established one strong post upon the farther river bank, the Seventeenth on the left were lining the western bank of the Selle, while the enemy were reported to be holding the line of the Le Cateau-Solesmes railway in strength, and especially the village of Neuvilly to the east of the river. [Sidenote: Oct. 5-10.]