At zero, 2.30 A.M., “F” Special Company R.E. discharged smoke with unqualified success, and the machine-gun barrage opened. The torpedo was fired, and both platoons got through the wire without difficulty. On the right no Germans were met, but on the left they offered a good deal of opposition, and here Cpl. Arscott, Lance-Cpl. Taylor, and Rfm. Young did very good work. Several Germans are believed to have been killed, one was taken prisoner, and at 4 A.M. the whole party returned to the line without loss. The Divisional Commander sent his congratulations to the battalion for securing an identification which was very badly needed. On the 19th of September Lieut.-Colonel F. W. Gosset, C.M.G., D.S.O., arrived to take over temporarily the duties of G.S.O.I. from Lieut.-Colonel Clarke. Later in the month he was succeeded by Lieut.-Colonel A. W. Stericker, D.S.O. By the end of September the development of the general situation began directly to affect the position on the Divisional front. The operations of the British Army formed part of a comprehensive scheme by which four converging offensives were launched by the Allies on the whole front from the Meuse to Flanders. On the 26th of September French and American forces attacked on both sides of the Argonne; on the 27th troops of the First and Third British Armies captured the outlying German defences west of Cambrai, as a prelude to a British attack on the whole Hindenburg Line; on the 28th the Second Army and the Belgians attacked in Flanders, where the success gained forced the enemy to retire on the 2nd of October on the whole front from Armentières south to Lens. The British assault on the Hindenburg Line, begun on the 29th, resulted in the capture of the whole of this formidable position from St Quentin, which was taken by French troops operating on our right, to Cambrai. By the 5th of October the enemy’s defence in the last and strongest of his prepared positions had been shattered, and the way was opened to the vital railway centre at Maubeuge.[21] At the time when those battles opened the enemy still held his line opposite the 20th Division, and during the whole of this period, up to the 6th of October, although pressed by fighting patrols from each brigade, he gave up comparatively little ground except immediately south of Lens. On the night of the 26th/27th of September the 7th D.C.L.I., the right battalion of the 61st Brigade, attacked the enemy’s trenches south-west of Acheville in conjunction with the 8th Division on the right. At the same time the 59th and 60th Brigades assisted with trench mortar and machine-gun fire, and gas was projected in the Avion sector.