The loss of the Messines Ridge, though the 9th Division was still standing south of Hollebeke and at Wytschaete, compelled Plumer to rearrange his front. Early on the night of the 11th he relinquished Nieppe, retiring the 34th Division to the neighbourhood of Pont d’Echelles. This involved the falling back of the 25th and 19th Divisions to a front about 1,000 yards east of Neuve Eglise and Wulverghem, and the consequent abandonment of the important point, Hill 63, just north of the western extremity of Ploegsteert Wood. South of the Lys there had been heavy fighting. The line of the Lawe had been lost, and by this time the enemy was in Merville. That night the British front ran from Givenchy to Locon, west of Merville, west of Neuf Berquin, north of Steenwerck and Nieppe, east of Neuve Eglise and Wulverghem, west of Messines, and along the ridge just covering Wytschaete. The gate was open, but it was narrow, and the gate-posts still held. [Sidenote: _April 12._] About four on the afternoon of the 11th orders had been received from the 19th Division for a general withdrawal. The South Africans were to fall back to a line from North Midland Farm by Kruisstraat Cabaret and Spanbroekmolen to Maedelstaede Farm, with the 108th Brigade on their right and the 57th in reserve along the Neuve Eglise-Kemmel road. About eight o’clock the Germans were found to be working round the left flank in the vicinity of L’Enfer, and accordingly two companies of the 1st Royal Irish Fusiliers from the 108th Brigade were sent to the north of L’Enfer to obtain touch with the 9th Division. For the rest, the withdrawal was carried out without incident. By 5 a.m. on the 12th the South Africans were in their new front. Up to now the enemy had not used more than sixteen divisions; but on the morning of Friday, the 12th, he began to throw in his reserves at a furious pace. Elated by his rapid success, he turned what was meant as a diversion into a major operation, and dreamed of Boulogne and Calais. It was Ludendorff’s first blunder, and it was fatal. It saved the Allied front, but for the moment it all but destroyed the British army. Our reinforcements were arriving from the south, but they could only gradually come into line. That day the enemy came very near to crossing the La Bassée Canal. He made an ugly gap in our line south-west of Bailleul, which let through detachments, who seized Merris and Oultersteene north of the railway. He was now close on Bailleul Station, pushing direct for Hazebrouck, and but for a gallant stand of a brigade of the 33rd Division, would have been through the breach. In the section of the 9th and 19th Divisions nothing happened. The enemy, having gained the Messines Ridge, was apparently content to rest there for a time, and made no further attack. [Sidenote: _April 13._]