The front allotted to the 9th Division was some 2,000 yards north of the Ypres-Menin road. Through its centre ran the Ypres-Roulers railway. On its right was the 2nd Australian Division, and on its left the 55th Division of West Lancashire Territorials. The 9th Division formed the right of the Fifth Army. Its attack was to be on a two-brigade front, the South Africans on the left and the 27th Brigade on the right, while the 26th Brigade was held in reserve. The South Africans were disposed as follows: the 3rd Regiment, under Lieutenant-Colonel Thackeray, on the right, and the 1st, under Lieutenant-Colonel Heal, in support; on the left the 4th Regiment, under Lieutenant-Colonel MacLeod,[21] supported by the 2nd, temporarily under Major Cochran. When the first objective had been taken, the two supporting battalions were to pass through, and attack the second and third objectives. The British line at the moment lay on the east side of the Frezenberg Ridge. The first objective for the South Africans was roughly the line of the Steenbeek stream.[22] The second was a line running north and south a little west of the junction of the Ypres-Zonnebeke road and the Ypres-Roulers railway. This was now the main German position, part of the great Langemarck-Gheluvelt line. The final objective, known as the Green Line, was very slightly east of the second, and involved an advance mainly on the left wing of the attack. The purpose was to win the ridge which gave observation of Zonnebeke, and which, until it was captured, hindered all advance further north. The countryside was to the last degree blind and desperate. Not only was there a stream to cross, and many yards of swamp to struggle through, but the area included some of the most formidable “pill-boxes” on the German front, while in the main enemy line stood the Bremen Redoubt, and the stronghold made out of Zevenkote village. [Sidenote: _Sept. 19._] The starting-point being what it was, a night assembly in such an area was the most intricate of problems. On 17th September the South Africans moved into the front line, relieving the 125th Brigade. Wednesday, the 19th, was a clear, blowing day; but about ten o’clock in the evening the rain began, and fell heavily all that night. During the darkness the Brigade was getting into position for attack. The black night and the slippery ground made the whole operation extraordinarily difficult in a place devoid of communication trenches and honeycombed with shell-holes. The ground was so cut up that it was possible to move only by duck-board tracks, and it was hard to get reports back from the different units. Nevertheless, long before zero hour, the attacking battalions were in their place. [Sidenote: _Sept. 20._]