The formations ordered were as follows. The attack was to be made on a two-brigade front, Sirhind on the right, with the 1st Highland Light Infantry and the 1/4th Gurkhas in front line, and the 1/1st Gurkhas and 15th Sikhs in support. The Jalandar Brigade on the left of the Sirhind had on its own left the 1st Manchesters, in touch with the 25th Brigade, 8th Division, Fourth Army Corps; next on the right was the 47th Sikhs, fine fighters always; and on the right of all, the remnants of the Suffolks and 59th Rifles; leaving no troops to form a Brigade reserve. The frontage allotted to the Brigade made a total of about 900 yards. The hour for the attack had been fixed for 11 A.M., but an order from the First Army postponed it for two hours, on account of the difficulties of registration due to the misty atmosphere. Bavarian prisoners of the 16th and 21st Regiments who had surrendered, stated that the enemy in the Bois du Biez had been strongly reinforced that morning; however, Germans kept coming in all day and surrendering in small parties; they stated they had had no food, and looked cold and hungry. I several times personally interviewed German prisoners during my year in France, but I seldom came across the truculent specimens one reads of; most of those I saw appeared very glad to be on the British side of the trenches, and of one, at least, after this battle, I have an amusing story to tell. About 11 A.M., 12th March, the Brigadier received a report from one of his battalions, the 4th Suffolks, that this unit then consisted of but 140 rank and file, and at the same time the 59th Rifles reported a total strength of 125 men. The shortage had been caused largely by the casualties both battalions had suffered, but also by the fact that many of the men were wandering about dazed by the intense shell-fire, and unable to follow their units. Some gradually rejoined, but meantime, as the hour for the attack was nearing, Strickland was obliged to readjust his formations, reducing frontage and bringing his reserve battalion, the 59th Rifles, into the first line, thus dispensing with a Brigade reserve altogether. No reserve! and two battalions numbering 270 men between them: the Corps was often expected to make bricks without straw. This reminds me of a native of India who once explained to me, that the reason why the old Mogul emperors used very small bricks for all the monuments round Delhi, was that they cost less than large ones. Perhaps he was thinking of the Government of modern India. At 1 P.M., 12th March, it was reported that the attack of the 25th British Brigade on our left had progressed 100 yards. Just previously about a hundred Germans hurried across from their lines and surrendered. By 2.10 P.M. the Jalandar Brigade was held up, as it found itself in advance of the British Brigade on its left, and was now under a severe enfilade and oblique fire from machine-guns and rifles.