The 3rd Battalion Grenadiers moved forward at 10 P.M., and reached the citadel of Maubeuge at 2 A.M., but it was just too late to cut off the enemy's rear-guard. De Crespigny's Brigade was ordered to consolidate a line on the high ground east of the city; this was many miles east of any point reached by the remainder of the British Army. With the capture of Maubeuge the advance of the Guards Division ended, and at 11 A.M. on the 11th the Armistice was signed. The final rapid advance had been made under circumstances of exceptional difficulty, since the systematic destruction of the railways by the Germans had necessitated the supply of ammunition and rations being brought up by road. The country was closely intersected by streams, and as all road bridges were destroyed, it was necessary to erect temporary bridges with deviations through the fields leading to them, while the original bridges were being repaired. Constant rain and the continuous stream of transport soon turned these deviations into a quagmire, through which the horses, often up to their bellies in mud, had to pull their heavy load: only the persistent determination of the transport officers and men to get through at all hazards, and the fine condition of the horses made the task of supplying the troops possible. Even then these efforts would have been of no avail, but for the work of the Royal Engineers in repairing the innumerable bridges to carry lorry traffic: day and night, without rest and with scarcely time for food, they worked, and never failed to do what was asked of them. But the finest part of the advance, without which victory could not have been enforced in 1918, was the dash and courage of the infantry in face of the insidious knowledge that peace was within sight. Every officer and man who went into those attacks in November knew that it might be the last engagement of the war, and that if he avoided unnecessary risk he would probably get through safely; if he took it, he might be throwing away his life on the last day of the war. That knowledge had not the smallest effect upon the conduct of the troops, and the attack on November 4 was carried out with a dash and reckless courage that had never been surpassed in the war. The result cannot be over-estimated: instead of a half-hearted Armistice with the Germans still under the impression they were, as far as the army was concerned, virtually the victors, the last attacks had shown them that it was merely a matter of estimating how far their defeat had been completed, and had made them understand that their safest course lay in bringing about an Armistice as speedily as possible, to save the reputation of their army. THE 1ST BATTALION [Sidenote: 1st Batt.]