Part III
The Battle of Andigny
Chapter VI
The clearing of the Bois de Riquerval and the Battle of Andigny les Fermes
While Divisional Headquarters were establishing themselves in Fresnoy, the leading troops of the Division—the 138th Infantry Brigade—pushing forward from Bohain, encountered strong enemy resistance on the edge of the Bois de Riquerval. This wood, an outlier of the larger Forest of Andigny, stretched north and south right across the Divisional front of 3,000 yards. Filled as it was with machine-gun nests and strongly organized networks of trenches and strong-points, it opposed a serious obstacle in the path of our advance. A considerable portion of the wood had been cleared by the Germans, trees having been cut down and converted into timber for the lining of dug-outs and other military works. These recently cleared areas, however, while affording better observation both for ourselves and for the enemy, were still choked with thick undergrowth and were sown with strongly organized defences hidden by the scrub. From well-concealed emplacements, enemy machine gunners were able to command all approaches to the wood.
Thus, on October 10th, strong patrols of the 1/4th
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