Major Boyd, 60th Field Ambulance, made two attempts on the 23rd to establish an A.D.S. at Béthencourt, but in the afternoon the shelling was so heavy that the party could not get through, and at night the danger of the enemy turning the flank was too great to make this a suitable place. An A.D.S. was therefore formed between Béthencourt and Mesnil-St Nicaise, where many casualties were brought in. Severe shelling forced Major Boyd and his party to evacuate this dressing station on the 24th and to take shelter wherever possible. The stretcher cases were collected in a cowshed, but as the shelling showed no signs of abating and the enemy was pressing forward, this A.D.S. was definitely abandoned and the wounded carried back by repeated journeys through the barrage to a place on the side of the road. Here, fortunately, a motor lorry came up, steering an erratic course between the shell-holes. All cases were crowded into it and got away, while the party moved off to Nesle, picking up and carrying back many more wounded men on the way. Lieut.-General Sir F. I. Maxse, the Corps Commander, states in his report on these operations: “Throughout the 23rd March and until the afternoon of the 24th the 20th Division not only held their own new line, but also counter attacked with the 60th Brigade to restore the situation south of Ham. The 12th Battalion K.R.R.C. particularly distinguished themselves on this date, as did also the 11th Battalion of the Rifle Brigade at Béthencourt in the area of an adjoining Corps.” The following extract from Sir Douglas Haig’s despatches[13] deals with the situation on the 24th: “At nightfall the line of the river north of Epenancourt was still held by us, but the gap opposite Pargny had been enlarged, and the enemy had reached Morchain. South of that point the 20th Division, with its left flank in the air and having exhausted all reserves in a series of gallant and successful counter attacks, fell back during the afternoon to the line of the Libermont Canal, to which position the great weight of the enemy’s attacks from Ham had already pressed back the troops on its right.” On the Libermont Canal, on the afternoon of the 24th, the right of the 60th Brigade rested about Buverchy; the 83rd Field Company R.E., the 11th D.L.I., and the 6th K.S.L.I., who had rejoined the brigade, held this flank; the 12th K.R.R.C. were opposite Bacquencourt, and the 12th R.B. continued the line to Quicquery. The troops of the 59th Brigade had become rather mixed, but generally the Scottish Rifles held the right from Quicquery to the railway, and the 11th R.B., with elements of the 61st and 8th Divisions, the left as far as Mesnil-St Nicaise.