On the night of the 12th/13th the 7th Somerset L.I. relieved the 12th King’s in the front line. At 5.30 A.M. the enemy blew up a mine under a small salient of the front trench held by a platoon of “B” Company. About twenty men were buried by the explosion. In spite of heavy artillery, machine gun and trench mortar fire which the enemy poured into the area of the explosion, the crater was occupied at once, and the rest of the company began to rescue their buried comrades, five of whom were killed and twelve injured. The casualties among the rescuers were two killed and five wounded. Lieut. B. E. F. Mitchell, the platoon commander, was awarded the M.C., and Lance-Corporal C. Ward, who was in charge of the company stretcher-bearers, the D.C.M. for conspicuous gallantry under heavy fire. Major R. P. Preston Whyte, commanding “B” company, received the written congratulations of the Divisional Commander. The 84th Field Company R.E. (Major H. S. Christie) moved to Rue Biache in the 61st Brigade area. Each field company was now with an infantry brigade, the 96th (Major A. C. Scott) with the 60th Brigade, the 83rd (Major L. E. Hopkins) with the 59th, and the 84th with the 61st, and henceforward this arrangement was kept, each brigade and its field company working together. Similarly the 60th Field Ambulance (Lieut.-Colonel A. C. Osburn), the 61st Field Ambulance (Lieut.-Colonel W. J. S. Harvey), and the 62nd Field Ambulance (Lieut.-Colonel J. G. Gill) worked respectively with the 59th, 60th and 61st Brigades. The two companies of the 11th D.L.I. (Pioneers), which had remained to work under the R.E. when the Division came into the line, returned in the beginning of September. Meanwhile, plans had been made for operations on a considerable scale further south, to begin on the 25th of September. The general plan was that the French were to advance in Champagne, and in conjunction with this the British troops were to attack near Loos on a front from about Grenay to the La Bassée canal. Along the rest of the front subsidiary operations were to be carried out:-- (1) By the 2nd Division of the First Army near Givenchy. (2) By the Meerut Division (Indian Corps) near Neuve Chapelle. (3) By the 8th Division (IIIrd Corps) near Le Bridoux. (4) By the Vth Corps near Bellewarde Farm, east of Ypres. It is with the operations of the Meerut and 8th Divisions, on the immediate right and left of the 20th, that we are now concerned. The Meerut Division was to assault the enemy’s trenches about Mauquissait with the ultimate objective, should the enemy show signs of demoralisation, of the high ground between Haut Pommereau and La Cliqueterie Farm. This would pave the way for a further advance of the Indian Corps in a south-easterly direction, breaking the enemy’s line and assisting the advance further south by turning the La Bassée defences. The Gharwal Brigade was detailed to attack on the right and the Bareilly Brigade on the left.