After days of raids and counterattacks insignificant when considered as separate operations, but important in the aggregate, British troops under Field Marshal Haig delivered a powerful attack against the German lines east of Ypres on an eight-mile front on September 20, 1917. According to an eyewitness, the barrage that preceded the advance was the heaviest on record. The British were successful in attaining all their objectives. The German center along the Ypres-Menin road was penetrated to the depth of a mile. Rain had fallen steadily during the night preceding the assault, but the assembling of the regiments assigned to the operation was carried through without a mishap. North Country troops carried the Inverness Copse. Australian troops stormed Glencorse Wood and Nonneboschen (Nun's Wood); Scottish and South African brigades captured Potsdam, Vampire, and Borey Farms; West Lancashire Territorials carried Iberian Farm and the strong point known as Gallipoli. After making a swift "clean-up" of these places and positions the British forces advanced on the final objectives. Troops from the counties who drove forward on the right encountered fierce opposition in the woods north of the Ypres-Commines Canal, and in the vicinity of the Tower Hamlets, but cut through with mighty thrusts and gained the desired goal with light casualties. In the center North Country and Australian battalions pierced German positions to a depth of over a mile and won all their objectives, which included the village of Veldhoek and the western part of Polygon Wood. Zevenkote, farther north, was won and the London and Highland Territorials made a clean sweep of the second line of farms, including Rose, Quebec, and Wurst Farms, all on the line of their final objectives. Though the Germans were prepared, the British advance worked smoothly. Some of the hardest fighting was encountered south of Langemarck to the Ypres-Roulers railway, where there were numerous strong concrete and steel redoubts. Many positions like Rose and Quebec Farms were captured by the British in the face of deadly machine-gun fire, and over a terrain of heavy mud and through pools of water. When the advance was begun and the Australians went over the top, a heavy barrage was dropped by the Germans just back of them, but many shells fell among the advancing men and caused a number of casualties. The Australians were in an unpleasant situation, but pressed cheerfully forward without pause and gained Anzac Farm, where their standard was raised in honor of the victory. In the course of the evening the British in local attacks northeast of Langemarck drove the Germans out of the last strong points in that region, and like operations were successfully carried out on the rest of the front, the enemy offering only slight opposition.