At noon Tanner saw Major-General Jeffreys, commanding the 19th Division, and received his orders. The enemy had broken through between Messines and the place called Pick House on the Wytschaete road, and the situation at the moment was obscure. The South Africans were to counter-attack and retake that section of the crest of the ridge. The front established by the Messines victory of June 1917 had been more than two miles east of the crest, but that morning’s fighting had brought it back generally to the western slopes. The counter-attack, in which the 57th and 58th Brigades of the 19th Division were to co-operate, was aimed at recovering the ridge and its eastern slopes. The area of the South African Brigade was between Messines village and Lumm’s Farm. Their first objective was the Messines-Wytschaete road; the second the original British third defence zone, bending round the village on the east from Bethlehem Farm in the south to Pick House in the north; and the third the original battle zone. The defence system in this area had not the elaboration of that of the Somme, and the second and third objectives may be best described as the old British third and second lines. At 5.15 p.m. the South Africans moved from their position of assembly to the line of the Steenebeek stream, where, at 5.45, they deployed for the attack. The 1st Regiment was on the right, and directed against Messines village; the 2nd on the left against the front between the village and Pick House. The 4th was in support to both battalions, and one of its companies was allotted to the assistance of the attack of the 1st on Messines itself. The spring day had clouded over, and there was mist and a slight drizzle when the infantry advanced. The western slopes of the ridge were held at the time only by some units of the 19th Division. On the South African right was the 57th Brigade, and on their left, beyond Pick House, on the Wytschaete Ridge, the rest of the 9th Division. [Illustration: ACTION OF SOUTH AFRICAN BRIGADE ON MESSINES RIDGE.]