The 11th R.B., the reserve battalion of the 59th Brigade, moved forward at 8.50 A.M. with the object of occupying a line below the north-east slope of Welsh Ridge. It soon became evident, however, that the enemy had broken through on the front of the 20th Division. Major Morgan Owen, who was in command of the battalion on this day, therefore decided that the two most pressing duties were to endeavour to save the guns and to take up a defensive position and gain touch with the troops on each flank. A position in front of the guns of the 92nd Brigade was then impossible. The line chosen crossed the La Vacquerie valley about 1500 yards from the village, and followed the south-east slope of Welsh Ridge. A platoon of “C” Company, under 2nd Lieut. Crawford, drove the enemy back from a wireless station on the lower slopes of the ridge so that some secret papers might be removed and the destruction of the apparatus completed. This platoon, with some forty artillerymen, then took up a position commanding the dismantled guns of the 92nd Brigade. Half “B” Company was sent up as a reinforcement and the guns were temporarily retaken, enabling the artillery to remove the remaining breech-blocks, but heavy shelling and an encircling movement of the enemy afterwards compelled this party to withdraw. 2nd Lieut. Crawford was awarded the D.S.O. The battalion, with both flanks in the air, repulsed four attacks before the remains of the other three battalions of the brigade fell back on to this line. At 6 P.M. Lieut.-Col. Priaulx, commanding the 11th K.R.R.C., was placed in command of the battalions of the 59th Brigade. The 7th K.O.Y.L.I., in reserve to the 61st Brigade, manned the Hindenburg Support Line on Welsh Ridge and formed a valuable rallying-point. While the remnants of the 59th and 60th Brigades had been fighting desperately to stem the enemy’s advance and had finally established a line on the north-eastern and south-eastern slopes of Welsh Ridge, the 60th Brigade also had been hotly engaged. The enemy’s most dangerous advance developed on the right flank, where by 9.30 A.M. he had taken Bonavis, Villers-Guislain, Gonnelieu and Gouzeaucourt, and was on the southern outskirts of La Vacquerie. On the left the 29th Division was gallantly holding out in Masnières. Communications with flank divisions having been broken and the wireless station put out of action by a hostile shell, Divisional Headquarters knew that the Germans had broken through on the south only when parties of men were seen retiring over the high ground at Gonnelieu. A staff officer who was sent out to ascertain the situation ordered these men to hold the bank of the Gouzeaucourt--Villers Plouich road.