Page:Breaking the Hindenburg Line.djvu/177

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THE BATTLE OF ANDIGNY
149

of his own section, to the assistance of the right company. All officers on this flank having become casualties, he assumed command and reorganized the firing-line under the heavy fire which was still being poured in from the clearing. At the same time, Colonel Curran, of the 8th Sherwoods, collected a party of one hundred men, reorganized them, and sent them forward under Major Robinson, his second-in-command, to attack the ridge from the north. Seeing themselves thus out-manœuvred, the enemy in the clearing surrendered, and 140 prisoners and twenty-seven machine guns were collected from this small area, which had been the main bastion of the German forward defences. The enemy in this small action showed very good spirit indeed, and the casualties suffered by the Sherwoods were severe. The German machine gunners fought very stoutly, although many of them were under the impression that an armistice was to have been signed on the day of the attack. One stalwart German protested vehemently at our lack of taste in attacking on the day of "peace," his last remark, hurled through the mist as he departed cagewards, being "Noch nicht Friede! Noch nicht Friede!" The enemy, having been driven from his forward defences, now took up his position on the main Bohain-Regnicourt Road, but the 8th Sherwoods, reinforced first by the support companies and later by the remainder of the 6th Battalion, were not to be gainsaid. The line swept forward, swamping all further resistance and capturing the road which was our final objective. The enemy were thus forced to retreat to the woods beyond, and our advanced troops dug themselves in well south of the road, the Engineers, meanwhile, setting to work on the formation of a strong-point in Regnicourt.