The battle of the 29th was a complete and most costly German repulse. The enemy had attacked with some 80,000 men, and his casualties were at least a quarter of his strength. The Royal Scots Fusiliers in Tanner’s brigade had suffered heavily, and the South African Battalion was ordered to relieve them. The work was complete by four o’clock on the morning of the 30th. For the next five days the situation was unchanged, for the fight on the 29th was the last great episode of the Battle of the Lys. Lieutenant B. W. Goodwin was killed by shell-fire on the 30th, and throughout the time the South African lines were consistently shelled. The enemy posted at Kemmel dominated our trenches, and movement during the day was dangerous. Happily, however, the misty weather and the poor visibility were on the side of the defence. On the 4th, Second-Lieutenant E. C. Addison, who had but recently joined, was killed by a shell, and the total casualties in this part of the line were, approximately, 200. On the night of the 5th the Battalion was relieved, and moved back without losses, though a party of guides under Lieutenant Stokes, who had gone ahead of the main body, was less fortunate. Lieutenant Stokes, whose gallantry had been conspicuous during the past days, was severely wounded, and four of his men were killed. The Brigade had now rejoined the 9th Division. [Sidenote: _May 5._] If we take 5th May as marking the close of the Battle of the Lys we may pause to reflect upon the marvels of the forty-five preceding days. More history had been crowded into their span than into many a year of campaigning. They had seen Ludendorff’s great thrust for Amiens checked in the very moment of success. They had seen the not less deadly push for the Channel ports held up for days by weak divisions which bent but did not break, and finally die away with its purpose still far from achievement. In those forty-five days the South African Brigade had been twice destroyed as a unit, and in each case its sacrifice had been the salvation of the British army. At Marrières Wood it delayed the advance which would have made an irreparable breach between Gough and Byng; on the ridge of Messines it maintained the northern pillar of our defence long enough to permit reserves to come up from the south. On 11th April Haig had issued his famous order, in which he warned his troops that they were fighting with their backs to the wall, and that every position must be held to the last man. The veterans of Marrières Wood and the new drafts of Messines obeyed this command to the letter. When the Composite Battalion was formed, there were men in it who had been fighting with Dawson or Tanner since the 21st of March. The few survivors of the forty-five days had behind them such a record of fruitful service as the whole history of the War could scarcely parallel. CHAPTER X. THE SUMMER OF 1918. (May-September 1918.)