By 9 A.M. the Pioneers had commenced work on communication trenches under considerable machine-gun and rifle fire. Before this work had to be discontinued about 100 yards of fire trench had been completed. The party at work on No. 2 trench also suffered considerably from hostile fire and hand-grenades, but it had completed about 130 yards of traversed trench before it had to retire. No work was possible on two other communication trenches; whilst the party on No. 4 trench continued work till 1.15 P.M. under constant fire. The Garhwal Rifles could not carry out the fresh attack as planned for them, as they were unable to get forward out of the communication trenches, which had become very congested in their neighbourhood. The general situation of the Bareilly Brigade remained as before. The few officers left were endeavouring to reorganise the units and to guard their flanks. On the right flank the 4th Black Watch were being echeloned back towards the left of the Garhwal Brigade in order to protect the right flank of the Bareilly Brigade. Major Wauchope, commanding the 2nd Black Watch, made over to the 12th Rifle Brigade of the 60th British Brigade on our left the trenches which the two companies of the Black Watch had been consolidating, and arranged for the party to extend along a ditch to join up with the 58th Rifles. The remainder of the Bareilly Brigade gradually collected in the German second line, where there seem to have been great congestion and heavy losses, owing to the dense target offered to the enemy. It is impossible to establish the hour at which these various actions took place, as most of the officers responsible for them were killed or wounded. Captain Hewett of the 41st Dogras, on the Staff of the Bareilly Brigade, was killed during the fighting. Like nearly every officer of the Indian Army who served on the Staff in France, he had won his own way by sheer merit. But now a change came over the hitherto successful operations. After mid-day, Artillery Observation officers reported that a good many men were to be seen coming back, and being rallied in an old German trench; and by 1 P.M. all our troops had fallen back to their original line. The enemy’s counter-attacks had developed at about 11.30 A.M. and were pressed home strongly and methodically against the front and both flanks. The front was able to hold its ground without difficulty, but on the flanks the enemy established a decided ascendancy in bombing. On our right flank the Germans outlasted our various parties with their grenade-throwing, and successively obtained the mastery of one point after another. The blocking of the trenches was ineffective after our supply of bombs was finished, and, although the men made a series of stands during the retirement, they were unable to maintain any position for long, as the Germans came bombing up from trenches on either flank.