At 3.30 in the afternoon Tanner was instructed to send 100 men of the 2nd Regiment to occupy an advanced position between Store Farm and Van Damme Farm, part of the line from which it was proposed to make the counterstroke. These men were required to form a garrison there, while the attack was delivered by the French. Meantime on the left the 26th Brigade of the 9th Division was to move on Wytschaete. The latter attack was launched at 7.30 in the evening, but was held up in the north-west of the village. A quarter of an hour before midnight Tudor ordered Tanner to place the 4th South Africans under the orders of Colonel Mudie, the officer commanding the 7th Seaforth Highlanders, in order to assist in clearing up the situation. At midnight the 1st South Africans and, two hours later, the 2nd South Africans (less the garrison on the Store-Van Damme Farm line) were also dispatched to the Seaforths. The 4th Regiment on its arrival was employed to fill a gap in the line on the north-west skirts of the village, while the 1st and 2nd Regiments were held in reserve. Some hours later Captain Farrell, who was now in command of the 4th, reported that parties of his men had succeeded in entering Wytschaete, but on account of heavy machine-gun fire and the lack of touch with their flanks, had been compelled to fall back. [Sidenote: _April 17._] Such was the situation on the morning of the 17th. It was for the enemy the most critical moment, perhaps, in the whole Battle of the Lys. He had reached his greatest strength, and the British troops were not yet reinforced at any point within sight of security. That morning von Armin’s right attacked in the Ypres salient, and wholly failed to break the Belgian front. At the same time his left, now that the possession of the Wytschaete Ridge gave him observation over all the land to the west, assaulted the wooded slopes of Kemmel, the key of the countryside. After an intense bombardment the German infantry advanced with great resolution from their new positions at Neuve Eglise and Wulverghem, but were repulsed at all points with heavy losses by the 34th, 49th, and 19th Divisions. Von Armin’s cherished plan had signally failed. During the 17th the South African Brigade was temporarily placed under the 26th Brigade, and the 100 men of the 2nd in the Store-Van Damme Farm line rejoined their regiment in front of Wytschaete. In that position during the night the 1st and 2nd South Africans relieved the 4th Regiment and the 7th Seaforth Highlanders, the 4th returning to the La Polka-Desinet Farm section, where it came once again under Tanner. [Sidenote: _April 18._] [Sidenote: _April 19-20._]