The situation, however, was still full of danger. The first objective was beyond the railway line; but, since our troops could not dig themselves in in the open because of machine-gun fire, they were compelled to fall back to the railway itself, where they had some kind of cover, though the German field guns were accurately registered on it. Slowly they cleared the line, and by midday Tanner was able to inform General Bethell that he held the railway from a point 500 yards north of the railway triangle to the northern boundary of the XIII. Corps. Meanwhile “D” Company of the 1st Regiment, which had followed the 2nd, succeeded under great difficulties in its appointed task of establishing a defensive flank on the left between the railway and the Selle. Every officer of the company was wounded during the course of the day. The losses of the assaulting battalions had been high, and the 1st Regiment was now called upon to reinforce each with a company, while a little later the remaining company was sent forward to strengthen the left flank. One battalion of the 198th Brigade was busy clearing up in Le Cateau. There could be no advance to the second objective yet awhile, for the 50th Division was in difficulties. It had not succeeded in carrying the railway triangle, and was involved in intricate fighting among the station buildings, much galled by machine-gun fire from the mound to the east. The 66th Division was called upon to help, and a battalion of the 198th Brigade was sent south of the town to attack towards the point where the Bazuel road crosses the railway. The Corps heavy artillery put down an intense bombardment from 3 p.m. to 3.30 p.m. on the station and the railway triangle, and it was proposed thereafter to send in the 150th Brigade. But at that moment came an enemy counterstroke against the junction of the 50th Division and the II. United States Corps, and the 150th Brigade had to be diverted south to restore the broken front. That evening, after fifteen hours of desperate fighting, the XIII. Corps held a line along the Arbre de Guise-Le Cateau road, through the east skirts of Le Cateau, and along the railway line to Baillon Farm, beyond which it bent back to the Selle. The town had been won, but not the vital ridge to the east. [Sidenote: _Oct. 18._] [Sidenote: _Oct. 19._]