particular the Division could have reached its objective very much quicker and with much fewer casualties than it did, though as it was the success of the attack was phenomenal.
Perhaps the most dramatic scenes of the attack on the Canal occurred on the front attacked by the left battalion, the 1/6th North Staffords. This battalion was given a frontage of attack of 800 yards, and formed up with two companies in line and two in support. It was known to the staff that the Riqueval Bridge on the left of the battalion objective was the main artery of supply for the German troops on the west side of the Canal and that this bridge had remained undestroyed up to the previous evening. There was therefore a possible chance of the bridge being seized intact, and Captain A. H. Charlton with his company were detailed to attempt its capture. This officer led his company by compass bearing towards the bridge, but when descending the ravine leading towards it was held up by machine-gun fire from a trench defending the approach to the bridge. Captain Charlton, realizing the urgency of the situation, took forward a party of nine men, captured the gun, killing all the crew with the bayonet, and then rushed the bridge. The sentries on the bridge and the pioneers who had been detailed to blow it up had been forced to take shelter from our bombardment, but seeing our men approaching rushed out to fire the charges. A race ensued, which was won by the assaulting troops, the nearest N.C.O. shooting all four of the Germans, while the officer seized the leads, cut them, and threw the charges into the Canal. Sentries were then posted on the bridge, and the whole of the company stormed across and mopped up the trenches and enemy posts on the east side of the Canal.
