All four companies were placed in the front line and told to find their own supports, but two platoons of No. 1 Company were kept in Battalion reserve. The line of resistance was just on the forward crest of a slope. Patrols were at once sent out, and reported the presence of several units of the Thirty-first Division, still holding the line in front of the Battalion. In the early morning troops were observed moving southward across the front, and these proved to be units of the Thirty-first Division, who had received their orders too late to withdraw under cover of the darkness. Later in the morning the 2nd Guards Brigade appeared on the right with orders to dig a line, in continuation of that held by the 2nd Battalion, and to cover the retirement of the rest of the Thirty-first Division. The remainder of the Guards Division had had to conform to the retirement on the right, by withdrawing during the night to a line which prolonged to the left the new position taken up by the 2nd Battalion, so that at daybreak all four Guards Brigades were in line between Boisieux-St.-Marc and Ayette. During the morning several battalions of the Thirty-first Division passed through the line on the left of the Battalion, and retired to the rear. All the time the enemy were following close behind, and about 7 P.M. Captain Martin Smith reported that 100 Germans could be seen advancing on the crest of a hill in front. They were preceded by machine-guns, which at once opened fire on our advanced posts, causing a few casualties. This advance on the part of the enemy was, however, soon arrested by Lewis-gun and rifle fire, and for the moment no action developed. As soon as it was dark, patrols were pushed out, and the trench line was wired. At 11.30 P.M. that night orders were issued for De Crespigny’s Brigade to relieve Sergison-Brooke’s Brigade, the relief to be complete by 4.30 A.M. The 2nd Battalion relieved the 1st Battalion Coldstream astride the Arras-Albert railway, with Nos. 1 and 2 Companies under Captain Browning and Captain Martin Smith on the east side, and Nos. 3 and 4 under Lieutenant Clarke and Captain Wilson on the west side of the railway line. The new position was difficult to hold, for, not only did it include three sunken roads and a railway, but it was also overlooked from the outskirts of Moyenneville and from high ground all along the front, where a number of deserted huts could give cover to snipers and machine-guns. During the night it was found necessary to throw back the right of the line towards the supporting battalion, which had to send up men to fill the gap made on the right by the withdrawal of the Thirty-first Division. [Sidenote: Mar. 27.]