On 6th October the 66th Division was warned that it would be used presently in a major operation in which the Fourth and Third Armies would co-operate. The object was to destroy the remnants of the Beaurevoir line, and with it the Siegfried zone. The country was the last slopes of the Picardy uplands, where they break down to the flats of the Scheldt—wide undulations enclosing broad, shallow valleys. There was little cover save the orchards and plantations around the farms and hamlets, but there were many sunken roads, and these, combined with the perfect field afforded everywhere for machine-gun fire, made it a good land for rearguard fighting. The XIII. Corps was now the right flank of the Fourth Army, with the II. United States Corps on its right, and the British V. Corps on its left. The 66th Division was in the centre of the corps, and the task specially committed to it was the capture of Serain. General Bethell attacked with two brigades—the South African on the right and the 198th on the left, each on a two-battalion front. The starting-point was a line running north-west and south-east through the eastern outskirts of Beaurevoir village. In the South African Brigade the 2nd Regiment was on the right and the 4th on the left, with the 1st Regiment in support. [Illustration: LIEUTENANT-COLONEL D. M. MACLEOD, D.S.O., M.C., D.C.M., Commanding 4th Regiment, South African Infantry.] [Sidenote: _Oct. 8._] It was a wild, wet autumn morning when Byng and Rawlinson advanced on a seventeen-mile front, from south of Cambrai to Sequehart, while Débeney extended the battle four miles farther south. Zero hour for the Fourth Army was 5.10; for the Third Army, 4.30. The South African Brigade had moved on the 7th into the Siegfried lines at Bony, and by 3.30 a.m. on the 8th it had occupied its battle position. Unfortunately the assembly was not completed without loss. A preliminary attack by the 38th and 50th Divisions on Villers and Villers-Outréaux brought down a retaliatory barrage from the enemy, and among the wounded was Lieutenant-Colonel Bamford, the commanding officer of the 2nd Regiment. His place was taken by Major Sprenger.