Liaison lines had grown formidably in numbers. Direct lines were now demanded not only between Heavy Artillery Headquarters and the Artillery Headquarters of all divisions in line, but between the divisional artilleries and the majority of the Heavy Artillery Groups. There had been a great development of the service of Observation in the shape of artillery aeroplanes, kite balloons, of which there were now three sections attached to the Corps and Observation Groups of the R.E. Survey battalion. Whenever possible lines were now required from these units, not only to the artillery groups, but to the batteries specially assigned for counter-battery work. To co-ordinate and render fully effective this work of the systematic location and destruction or neutralization of hostile batteries, a special staff, commanded by a colonel, had been added to the H.A. Headquarters, and this staff, in its turn, required additional direct lines and communication facilities to enable it to function promptly and effectively. The evil luck that, except in the initial push, caused every successful attack to be followed by broken weather, still held good and hampered all preparations for the assault on the next entrenched line; but by herculean efforts the necessary organization for another general attack on the 25th September was completed. Road conditions up to a certain point forward were now beginning to improve under the triple influences of the introduction of Décauville tramways for the conveying of the heavy ammunition in the forward area, the extension of broad-gauge ammunition railheads to Fricourt and Caterpillar Wood, and the removal of water lorries from the roads by the completion of a vast system of pipe lines extending back to the Ancre and the Somme through which the river water was pumped after treatment in chlorinating plants. On the 25th the intermediate German line, including Morval, Lesbœufs, and Gueudecourt, succumbed, and the Corps front again advanced over a mile. On the 26th the victory was completed by the Fifth Army’s capture of Thiepval, and once again the roseate prospect of a great victory and of reaching Bapaume before winter cheered the tired troops, and kept the Signal Company’s hands full with preparations for forward moves of all headquarters. The weather, however, intervened on the side of the Germans, and breaking decisively on the 26th, remained miserably cold and wet thenceforward, and largely stultified the heroic efforts repeatedly made throughout October.