Lieut.-Colonel A. F. A. N. Thorne, D.S.O. Commanding Officer. Capt. E. D. Ridley, M.C. Second in Command. 2nd Lieut. C. C. Carstairs Intelligence Officer. Lieut. G. P. Bowes-Lyon No. 1 Company. 2nd Lieut. H. St. C. Cooper ” ” 2nd Lieut. E. C. Long ” ” Capt. W. H. Beaumont-Nesbitt, M.C. No. 2 Company. Lieut. J. F. Worsley ” ” 2nd Lieut. C. B. Hollins ” ” 2nd Lieut. G. H. R. Hoare No. 3 Company. 2nd Lieut. A. C. Knollys ” ” 2nd Lieut. W. B. Ball ” ” Capt. J. S. Hughes No. 4 Company. 2nd Lieut. C. W. Carrington ” ” 2nd Lieut. Sir J. L. Hanham, Bart. ” ” Lieut. H. Dearden, R.A.M.C. Medical Officer. Capt. the Rev. S. Phillimore Chaplain. The night was bitterly cold, with snow and sleet soon after midnight. At 5.30 A.M. Colonel Thorne, accompanied by the Intelligence Officer, Lieutenant Carstairs, went round the line and found all the companies ready for the attack, which started at 6.20, after a very short and light artillery preparation. It was practically dark, and as the sleet had turned to a steady drizzle of rain it was difficult to see more than a few yards ahead. The tanks were late, but it was decided not to wait for them, and the signal to advance was given. Directly the 3rd Battalion left its trenches, it was met by a heavy machine-gun fire from a small house 200 yards to its right front, as well as from the line of trenches, just east and south of Fontaine, and began to suffer casualties. On reaching the German line, the wire was found to be uncut, and this, combined with the absence of the tanks, nearly ruined the success of the whole movement. In spite of these difficulties, however, Nos. 1 and 3 Companies got through the wire, and captured the trench, but their losses were very heavy. It was asking a good deal of a battalion to advance against a number of machine-guns, with strands of uncut wire intervening, and it was truly a marvellous performance to take the enemy’s trench under such conditions. Actually Lieutenant Bowes-Lyon with No. 1 Company managed not only to penetrate the wire, but to seize the machine-guns in the small house.