The 60th Brigade had suffered so severely, and the strength of the units had been so seriously reduced, that on the 1st of September the Corps Commander decided that the 47th Brigade of the 16th Division should be used in the attack on Guillemont and that the 60th Brigade should be withdrawn into reserve. The relief was accordingly carried out that night. Passing through Montauban battalions again came under heavy shelling. Brig.-General Butler handed over his complete plans for the battle to the Brigadier-General commanding the 47th Brigade, and sent up his staff captain and signal officer to assist him. It was a great disappointment to Brig.-General Butler and the 60th Brigade to be taken out of the attack after all the work done and the hardships suffered in preparation for it, but the strongest battalion, the 6th Oxford and Bucks L.I., did not number more than 550 rifles, and the remaining three battalions together totalled only 1000. The 6th Oxford and Bucks L.I. were then attached as a fifth battalion to the 59th Brigade. All this involved a modification of the original operation orders, though the main features of the scheme remained the same, and new orders were issued on the 2nd of September. In spite of these changes such a short time before the attack, all the necessary arrangements were made and worked well during the battle. [Illustration: GUILLEMONT STATION] Before describing the course of the battle it may be well to notice the lie of the ground and certain points that had an important effect on the operations. The enemy’s line ran a little to the west and north-west of Guillemont, which being part of his original second line of defence, though by this time reduced to a mass of ruins, was very strongly fortified. The village lay on high ground, but in a slight depression which is really the head of a long valley running up from the west. To the north, high ground extends for 3000 yards, with the village of Ginchy at the highest point; to the south, after forming a ridge from 400 to 1000 yards across, the ground fulls sharply in a series of irregular spurs and re-entrants towards the Somme. The most important of these re-entrants is a narrow valley which runs from Wedge Wood towards the north-east, merging just west of Leuze Wood into the high ground which extends east of Ginchy, and, except for the depression made by the upper end of this valley, east of Guillemont. Further east again the ground falls to the valley north of Combles. About 600 yards south-east of Wedge Wood is Falfemont Farm; 400 yards south-west of Guillemont are the remains of a small triangular plantation known as Arrow Head Copse, situated on the top of the ridge and overlooking the village. Running more or less south from the south-west corner of Guillemont are two sunken roads, which gave more trouble and cost more casualties than any other obstacle encountered both in this battle and in the previous attempts to take the village.