Our advance had continued for about ten hours, that is, till nearly three in the afternoon, when our enterprise seemed to have succeeded. As early as nine in the morning we held the whole of our second objective north of Westhoek. By the afternoon we had entered St. Julien, Frezenberg and the Pommern Redoubt, and had taken the crossings of the Steenbeek and Stirling Castle. Glencorse Wood and Inverness Copse had proved more difficult, but even here we held a footing on the ridge. We had “riven the oak,” we were now to feel the force of the rebound. That afternoon in a downpour of rain the enemy counter-attacked along the fronts of all three Corps. There was a fierce struggle, in which in many instances Tanks were able to do a good deal of execution. We were shelled out of St. Julien. North of it we withdrew to the line of the Steenbeek, and we were obliged to fall back from all but the western outskirts of Westhoek. All afternoon we slowly lost ground, yet when night fell we could still boast a battle well begun. It was, after all, never meant to be a one-day attack, and to-morrow we should start well. We had everywhere taken and held our first objective, that is, the low muddy ridge from which the enemy had so closely threatened the original Ypres arena. The second flat valley and the higher ridge from Passchendaele to Staden now lay before us. At least we were in a good position for to-morrow’s attack. Mr. Buchan thus in effect analyses our gains: Along two-thirds of our line of attack we held our first objectives. On half of the remaining third we had only fallen just short of our final objective. On the remaining sixth we had even slightly exceeded our final objective. We had besides taken 6000 prisoners and a quantity of machine-guns. II All that night the enemy counter-attacked us doggedly, resolved upon driving us down again. All night we fought to keep what we had won, and prepared the redoubled blow that we meant to deliver next day. That blow was destined never to be struck. The wind that brought the rain blew out our hopes of victory. [36] “The weather had been threatening throughout the [first] day, and had rendered the work of our aeroplanes very difficult from the commencement of the battle. During the afternoon, while fighting was still in progress, rain began, and fell steadily all night.