A halt was called for an hour before the attack on the second objective. After passing Potsdam it had been arranged between Dawson and Maxwell, with Lukin’s approval, that the area of the South African Brigade would be extended to the right till it included the northern bank of the railway. This made it important to clear that northern bank. Second-Lieutenant Lawrence of the 1st Regiment had accordingly been sent forward as soon as the attack began, and had met with no opposition till he came under machine-gun fire on the west side of Potsdam. Finding no troops near him, he retired till he fell in with some derelict tanks, when he turned south-east and reached the railway. Here he found some South Africans, who had become separated from the rest, clearing a dug-out on the south side of the line. Going eastward he found a large dug-out, where he took twenty German prisoners and captured three machine guns. He then found touch with the 12th Royal Scots, which had been his main object, and rejoined his battalion before the second stage of the battle began. Just previous to the opening of this stage Lieutenant-Colonel Heal of the 1st Regiment saw some men of the 1st and 3rd Regiments, headed by Sergeant Frohbus, advance through our own barrage against a large “pill-box” immediately on their front. It was a place which would give trouble in the next advance, so he joined the party and took command. On calling on the inmates of the “pill-box” to surrender, some thirty or forty came out, but the remainder declined to move. All the loopholes and openings of the structure were closed, but a certain “Mike” Fennessy of the 3rd Regiment, a Johannesburger whose past career had been largely outside the confines of the law, managed to get a bomb either through a ventilator in the roof or through a window which had been blown open by a grenade. This set fire to the wood lining, and the garrison broke out and were shot down. Four machine guns were captured in the place.[23] The doings of this Johannesburger are a comment on the value of the scallawag in war. As the shepherd said to Dr. John Brown about his dog: “There was a deep sariousness about him, for he could never get eneuch o’ fechtin’.” Twice in former battles he had gone over with the first wave, and when their work was done managed to continue with their successors. At Arras he actually finished the day with a wholly different division, which he found had the farthest to go.