At 5.25 A.M. on October 12 the attack was launched. The task allotted to Seymour’s Brigade was small compared with that of the troops on the right, as the direction of the advance of the Division was half left. Nos. 2 and 3 Companies under Second Lieutenant Pryce and Captain Burke consolidated their positions on the new objective during the previous night, although No. 3 Company had to withdraw to its original line at daybreak, as it was in the direct line of the creeping barrage. The Welsh Guards on the left remained stationary while the forward movement was being made on the right, and No. 3 Company of the 4th Battalion had only to go about 100 yards, so that these units were in position before zero hour. The object of the attack was to bring the whole line to within 150 yards of Houthulst Forest. As soon as our barrage came down, two platoons of No. 3 under Lieutenant Nash advanced and captured their objective with comparative ease, while two platoons from No. 1 Company occupied the old front line in close support. Not long afterwards Lieutenant Pryce reported that his two platoons had also reached their destination. The whole advance had been attended with but few casualties, as the enemy offered very little opposition. While coming up to inspect his two front platoons, Captain Pixley was killed by snipers, who had been left behind when the enemy retired to harass the advance. Any movement immediately drew the fire of these snipers, and after some of them had been located and killed it was easier to move about. About 11.30 A.M. the enemy’s barrage died down, and as there were no signs of any counter-attack, the rest of the day was spent in consolidating the position and in attending to the wounded. Two patrols were sent out into the fringes of Houthulst Forest, and returned with reports of the enemy’s defences and the condition of the ground, obtained from some prisoners they captured. Since it was clear that the enemy knew the range of the taped tracks, repeated hits having been registered on it, a party was detailed to lay out a new course on the 13th. The construction of this course was fully justified later by the absence of casualties when the Battalion was relieved. Including the two days in bivouacs on the east side of the canal, the Battalion had spent seven days in the open, exposed to the rain, and lying on waterlogged ground with little or no shelter. The total casualties in the Battalion were 20 killed, 4 missing, and 64 wounded. On the night of the 13th the Battalion was relieved, and travelled by train from Boesinghe to Ondank Station, where it went into billets at De Wippe Corner. CHAPTER XXVI CAMBRAI AND GOUZEAUCOURT _Diary of the War, October, November, December 1917_