On arrival on the east side of the canal, Lord Basil Blackwood led his party on into the darkness, but instead of the trench which they had expected to find from a previous study of the aeroplane map, there was nothing but a mass of shell-holes with heavy wire entanglement, which made it difficult for the party to keep together. After going a considerable distance over rough and broken ground, rifle-fire was suddenly opened on them from a dug-out. Lord Basil Blackwood’s orderly was wounded, while a sapper from the Royal Engineers, who formed one of the party, was killed. The remainder at once lay down in shell-holes, and as they waited bombs were thrown at them from the same direction. Owing to the two men who originally followed him having become casualties, the party now became scattered. Beyond this point little is known. A corporal of the Royal Engineers who accompanied the party, and who was wounded, said that he saw Lord Basil Blackwood crawl forward after the shots were fired, but subsequently lost sight of him. The two remaining men of the Grenadiers assert that they saw him fall, but that owing to the darkness they completely lost touch with him, and after crawling about for some time they returned to the canal bank. Unfortunately they omitted to report all this to their Company Commander, Captain Walker, who with Colonel de Crespigny and Major Bailey was waiting on the canal bank for any news of the raiding party. It did not at first occur to Captain Walker that anything was amiss, but when time wore on, and Lord Basil Blackwood failed to return, he became uneasy. The difficulty was, however, that no one could be found to give any information which would enable a patrol to go out with any hope of tracing the missing party.