During the night the 20th covered the withdrawal of the 30th and 61st Divisions, and then fell back in close contact with the enemy across the Somme Canal. Most of the fighting occurred on the front of the 60th Brigade. Brig.-General Duncan received the orders for this retirement at 10.45 P.M., and made repeated efforts to send them on to battalions, but, owing to the heavy fighting which was going on, none of the orderlies got through. All units, however, had been told what the plans were, and they successfully carried them out. At 11 P.M. the Germans, who had crept up close to the position under cover of a dense mist, drove a wedge between two companies of the 12th K.R.R.C. and got into the line of the 6th K.S.L.I., cutting off practically the whole of one company. Lieut.-Colonel Welch, commanding the 6th K.S.L.I., led the battalion headquarters forward to counter attack, but the enemy was found to be too strong. The companies of the K.S.L.I. were driven back in various directions, and the headquarters and most of the men became separated from the brigade until the afternoon of the 24th. The 12th R.B. particularly distinguished themselves; they inflicted very heavy casualties on the enemy and caused a stampede among his transport, which was moving down the main St Quentin--Ham road, but they lost their commanding officer, Lieut.-Colonel MacLachlan, who was killed while gallantly leading his men. “D” Company of the 11th D.L.I. (Lieut.-Colonel Hayes) had been sent to reinforce the 61st Brigade. The rest of the battalion had come under the orders of the 60th during the afternoon, and by 8 P.M. had taken up a position between Tugny and Bray to fill a gap between the 61st and 60th Brigades. Soon afterwards the 12th King’s, on the left of the 61st Brigade, were forced back, leaving the right flank of the D.L.I. exposed. The enemy could be heard in Tugny shouting in English and making a lot of noise, and patrols sent out by the battalion found that he had worked round the right flank in the fog. About midnight “B” Company on the left was rushed from the right rear. A strong party of “A” Company on the right, under Capt. Endean, however, held out until the battalion was ordered to retire through Ham and hold the bridge-head at Offoy. By this time the enemy had broken through the line and the casualties were heavy; but leaving twenty men under 2nd Lieut. English as a rearguard with two Vickers guns on the main road, the remains of the battalion withdrew. Capt. Endean, two other officers, and forty men of “A” Company, although surrounded, fought their way through, and a small party of “B” Company, under C.S.M. Craggs, who was afterwards awarded the D.C.M., got back with the 12th R.B. and took part in the rearguard actions fought by that battalion. In the early hours of the 23rd, 97 men of “A” and “B” Companies were formed into one company under Lieut. Bushell and occupied the Offoy bridge-head.