Our battalion furnished four waves, each wave having its own mission to accomplish--the whole battalion having one final objective.
Men with flags would continue waving them until the barrage was supposed to lift, then they would double forward and indicate by their flags where the barrage was then falling.
I was in the first wave, commanding No. 2 Platoon. The first and second waves, composed of "A" and "B" Companies, went through until they reached the final objective. The "moppers up" came next and stopped and mopped up each trench in succession. We advanced in diamond formation, then extended as we arrived within 50 yards of our barrage. When the barrage had lifted, we advanced in extended order, and made a rush for the presumed German trenches, with the idea of surprising the Germans before they could get out of their dugouts. Each succeeding wave acted in a like manner, until our battalion obtained its final objective. We had four trenches to capture. The fourth German trench was our battalion's final objective and was named the _Zwischen Stellung_ Trench.
As the waves went "over the top" they were accompanied a short distance in the rear by some Stokes guns under the command of the brigade Stokes gun officer. These Stokes guns were trench mortars, of short range, but very fast firing guns. The shells are simply dropped down the muzzle of the gun and are discharged as they strike the base. They can do very good work, but to satisfy their appetite when they start going in earnest, it requires a great number of shells.
Our first objective was a trench called the "Fringe Trench," and after we had captured this we then moved forward under our barrage. When it lifted we took our second objective, which was the Furze Trench. Our barrage lifting again, we advanced from the furze trench end captured a German support trench which had been dug by them recently. After capturing this trench, we then proceeded and captured our final objective, the _Zwischen Stellung_. On reaching the _Zwischen Stellung_ trench I was detailed with my platoon to bomb and to clean out any Germans I would find in part of a trench called the _Grenadier Graben_, which was from the intersection at the _Zwischen Stellung_ to the Lens-Arras road at right angles, which, of course, was beyond our battalion's final objective by 150 yards. Then I had to retire and dig in with my company some distance in front of the _Zwischen Stellung_.
