The half-ruined village of Neuve Chapelle, about to be turned into a shambles for the third time, lay but a few hundred yards to the front; boggy fields, torn hedges, and numerous ditches blocked the passages of the attackers, and the Aubers Ridge beyond looked down on the dead level country, so soon to mark the triumph of the Asiatic over the Teuton. At 8.5 A.M. precisely the Garhwal Brigade rushed to the assault of the enemy’s trenches opposite the front he had been holding along the La Bassée road. The order of battalions from right to left was: 1/39th Garhwal Rifles (Colonel Swiney). 2nd Battalion Leicesters (Lieut.-Colonel Gordon). 2/3rd Gurkha Rifles (Lieut.-Colonel Ormsby). 2/39th Garhwal Rifles (Lieut.-Colonel Drake-Brockman). The 3rd London Regiment was in Brigade reserve. The assaulting infantry (except the 1/39th Garhwalis) reached their first objective without a check, and by 8.30 had pushed through to the east side of the road joining Port Arthur with Neuve Chapelle. The 2/39th, the left battalion of the Brigade, and therefore the one nearest the right of the 8th British Division, which was attacking on our left, was met by some rifle and machine-gun fire but had soon reached the fourth German trench. Scouts were at once sent forward, and the consolidation of the position commenced. Simultaneously the advance was continued to the outskirts of Neuve Chapelle, where three machine-guns and 300 prisoners fell into their hands. In this advance Naik Jaman Sing Bisht won the Indian Order of Merit by fine leading, and Havildar Buta Sing Negi was awarded the same decoration. Rifleman Gobar Sing Negi received the Victoria Cross for conspicuous bravery and under circumstances so similar to those which had won it for his Garhwal comrade of the 1st battalion, viz. Naik Darwan Sing Negi, on the 23rd November 1914, near Festubert, that it would appear the soldiers from Garhwal firmly believe that the bayonet is the best weapon for use in the trenches. He was the leading man of the bayonet detachment which accompanied the bombing party; was first to rush each traverse, and besides himself bayoneting several Germans drove back many more who finally all surrendered. Death claimed him before he could receive the Cross which he had so bravely won, but it was awarded posthumously, and his family get the monetary award; whilst his name will remain a beacon to attract for years his fellow hillmen to the 2/39th Garhwal Rifles. Jemadar Ghantu Sing Negi was killed and over 130 casualties were suffered by the battalion.