The name of the South African Brigade was still to be retained, and the unit was to include, in addition to the Composite Battalion, the 9th Scottish Rifles (formerly in the 27th Brigade) and the 2nd Royal Scots Fusiliers, that famous battalion which at Ramillies had, along with the Buffs, led the decisive movement, and which at First Ypres had been all but annihilated. General Tanner was to be the Brigadier. To reconstruct a new brigade and a new battalion takes time, and while the work was in process the unfinished product had to be flung into the fight, for the Battle of the Lys was not over. Ludendorff had dipped too deeply in the north to withdraw easily. He had incurred great losses without gaining any real strategical objective, and he could not bring himself to write off these losses without another effort to pluck the fruit which was so near his grasp. If he could seize Kemmel Hill, he would broaden his comfortless salient and win direct observation over the northern plain. In front of Kemmel was the junction of the British and French lines, which he regarded as the weakest spot in our front. Accordingly on Thursday, the 25th April, he struck again for Kemmel. [Sidenote: _April 25._] In the early hours of that day a heavy enemy bombardment presaged the coming attack. At 3.35 a.m. the South African Battalion, which had been taken over on the 24th by Lieutenant-Colonel Bamford, was warned to be ready to move at fifteen minutes’ notice. At 5 a.m. von Armin attacked with nine divisions, five of which were fresh. His purpose was to capture Kemmel by a direct assault on the French, and by a simultaneous attack on the British right south of Wytschaete to turn their flank and separate the two forces. At first he seemed about to succeed. By ten that morning he had worked his way round the lower slopes and taken Kemmel village and the hill itself, though isolated French troops still held out in both places. In the British area the 9th and 49th Divisions were hotly engaged west of Wytschaete, and before midday the right of the 9th was forced back to Vierstraat. In the afternoon the 21st Division, farther north, was also attacked, and by the evening the British front had been compelled to withdraw to positions running from Hill 60 in the north by Voormezeele and Ridge Wood to the hamlet of La Clytte on the Poperinghe-Kemmel road, where it linked up with the French. [Sidenote: _April 26._]