The attack began at 4.30 a.m. with an intense bombardment extending back to and beyond the river, followed by an infantry assault about 7 a.m., which immediately broke through the Portuguese on the Corps right. There were no reserves available to man effectively the new line dug on the northern bank, and during the afternoon the enemy crossed at Bac St. Maur, and by 7 p.m. had forced our firing line back behind the signal test point at Croix de Bac. Communications had held well so far; the 34th Division was still maintaining its ground on the left round Armentières, and there was hope of an immediate restoration of the situation by counter-attack. The lineman at this point—Corporal Shepherd of the H.A. section—was, therefore, instructed not to destroy the lines, but to leave them all through, and fall back on the next test point. He did so, but omitted to put through one of the lines. On ascertaining this when he reached H.A. headquarters, he voluntarily returned and managed to re-enter the dug-out, which was now in No Man’s Land, and put the line through. Though this dug-out passed into the enemy’s hands during the night, and after a temporary reversal of fortune again next morning, direct communication from Corps headquarters to troops in Armentières was maintained over the cables passing through it till afternoon on the following day, when the evacuation of the town began. By next morning the Germans had forced the river to Estaires. This town had been intensely shelled all day, and B.E. Section billet was blown up early in the morning. Nevertheless, the Corps Exchange was kept going till a late hour that night by Lieutenant Hill with 51 Air Line and a party of operators from the Headquarters section. During the following days, the 10th, 11th, and 12th, the Corps was steadily driven back by the heavy thrust made by the enemy for Hazebrouck. The 29th and 31st Divisions and the 4th Guards Brigade were successively thrown in, but their desperate fighting only succeeded in slowing the German advance, until the entry into line of the 1st Australian Division on the night of the 12th, when the enemy was finally brought to a stop on the edge of the Nieppe Forest. Thereafter the storm centre shifted gradually to the northward round Kemmel and Messines, while on the Corps front the battle died down to local combats.