The 50th, according to all accounts, put up a glorious defence. Its position made a withdrawal impracticable, even if that had been contemplated; it was overwhelmed where it stood. As a fighting force the Division was practically destroyed; to it little more remained than the splendid tradition it had created. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, vol. v., chapter xi., gives an excellent description, with many interesting details, of the magnificent stand made on 27th May, by the 50th, 8th, and 21st Divisions, aided each by a brigade of the 25th, and of the intense fighting which occurred down to 6th June when the enemy’s effort was spent. As on the Somme and Lys, his losses had been enormous. The 19th Division came into the line on the 29th May, when prospects were very gloomy, and their presence did much to establish a new line. On 6th June the 4th Shropshire, T.F., of the 19th Division gained the Croix de Guerre, with palms for the recapture of Mont Bligny. A well-founded claim might be put forward that history records no instance where a large body of troops has come through, without loss of morale or fighting spirit, three such ordeals, within less than three months, as were endured by the divisions composing the British IX. Corps on the Aisne. Although one of them, the 8th, had not been on the Lys, it had very heavy fighting about Villers Bretonneux, which it assisted to recapture 24th/25th April, three weeks after the close of the March battle. The other divisions were in all three struggles. Whereas in old days a battle ended within twelve, or on exceptional occasions within forty-eight hours of its commencement, the St. Quentin-Somme battle, generally known as the March Retreat, raged night and day without cessation for ten days, that on the Lys for nearly three weeks, and that on the Aisne for over a week. The question will probably be discussed by the military historian or essayist of the future. Before the “Advance to Victory” was commenced the 50th Division had been reconstituted. The battalions which had been destroyed were replaced as follows:—149th Brigade: 3rd Royal Fusiliers, 13th Black Watch, 2nd Royal Dublin Fusiliers; 150th Brigade: 2nd Northumberland Fusiliers, 7th Wiltshire, 2nd Royal Munster Fusiliers; 151st Brigade: 6th Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, 1st King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, 4th King’s Royal Rifle Corps. See _Story of the Fourth Army_ (Hodder and Stoughton), p. 322. The 50th was again to do fine work, the tradition held. As part of the XIII. Corps, Fourth Army, the Division was employed in the last great British offensive, and played a part worthy of its past.