The gravest danger was in the south, for any further enemy advance there would turn the Green Line. Owing to the Germans moving northward behind our front it was impossible to keep to the original route of retirement, and all three units had to withdraw in a northern direction before striking west. The task of the 1st Regiment on the left was the least difficult. Under Lieutenant-Colonel Heal, it fell back upon Fins. Lieutenant-Colonel MacLeod, who commanded the 4th Regiment, was wounded during the afternoon, and the remnant, under Captain Bunce, moved along the Brown Line to the Fins-Gouzeaucourt road, and then westward from Fins. The most difficult operation fell to Lieutenant-Colonel Christian of the 2nd Regiment, but by a series of providential chances he extricated a large part of the regiment, following mainly the direction of the 4th. For “B” Company and its heroic commander, Captain Green, there was no chance of withdrawal. They were destroyed, fighting to the last. The details of the Brigade, to the strength of about 650 all ranks, had, on the 21st, been encamped at Heudicourt under Lieutenant-Colonel Young. Early on the 22nd they were ordered to fall back upon Nurlu, where, together with other 9th Division details, they laboured to improve the Green Line. The Brigade in its retreat passed through these details, and by about two in the morning of the 23rd had reached the Green Line and dug a position along the Nurlu-Péronne road south-east of Moislains. [Illustration: RETREAT OF SOUTH AFRICAN BRIGADE.] The South Africans were now in divisional reserve. Their casualties during the first two days of the battle had been about 900 all ranks. Two weak companies of the 1st Regiment, under Captains Burgess and Ward, had become detached in the darkness, and for the next days fought along with the 26th Brigade. Of the 2nd Regiment, Captain Green and Lieutenants Bancroft and Terry had been killed, Captains Rogers and Stein wounded and captured, Lieutenant Beviss was missing, and Captains Jenkins and Pearse and Lieutenant Sprenger had been wounded. Of the 4th Regiment, all the senior officers—Lieutenant-Colonel MacLeod, Majors Clerk and Browne, and the Adjutant, Captain Mitchell, had been wounded. In the circumstances the withdrawal of the Brigade to the Green Line must be regarded as a very remarkable feat of arms. For two days they had fought with their flank turned, and only the tenacity and courage of the men and the extreme coolness and daring of the junior officers had prevented a wholesale disaster. At about five in the evening of the 22nd it might well have seemed that nothing could save them.