The 4th Guards Brigade crossed the river at 10.a.m. and met with very heavy opposition. It had to pose through dense woods; field artillery support was difficult to obtain; but one section of a field battery pushed up to and within the firing line. About 1 p.m. the left of the brigade was south of the Ostel Ridge.
At this period of the action the enemy obtained a footing between the Ist and ud Corps, and threatened to cut the communications of the latter.
Sir Douglas Haig was very hardly pressed and bad no reserve in hand. I placed the Cavalry Division at his disposal, part of which he skilfully used to prolong and secure the left flank of the Guards Brigade. Some heavy fighting ensued, which resulted in the enemy being driven back with heavy loss.
About 4 o'clock the weakening of the counter-attacks by the enemy and other indications tended to show that his resistance was decreasing, and a genera} advance was ordered by the Army Corps Commander. Although meeting with considerable opposition and coming under very heavy artillery and rifle fire, the position of the corps st the end of the dav's operations extended from the Che-min-deeDames on the right, through Chivy, to Lo Cour de Sou-pir, with the Ist Cavalry Brigade extending to the Chavonne-Scissqns road.
On the right the corps was in close touch with the French Moroccan troops of the 18th Corps, which were entrenched in echelon to ite
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.