Careful reconnaissance during the preceding nights, and long scrutiny by
day through telescopes and field glasses left no doubt as to the weak
spot in the Hun armour. He had placed low wire in front of the copse but
had no protection on the flanks. A track leading from the front line
showed how his men moved up to occupy this outpost position and also the
probable route taken by patrols. As it also seemed evident that the
copse was held at night only, the plan of the raid was obviously to give
the enemy ample time to settle down in the outpost, and then dispose the
raiding party so as to strike in on an exposed flank. The western side
was selected, because there was little or no danger from the canal, and
it left the 8th a free hand to deal with "Dean Copse." At the appointed
time our men filed quietly along and got into position across the track
without any alarm being raised. Lewis guns were posted at one or two
points to cut off retreating Huns. At 1.8 a.m. exactly, our guns opened
fire, not upon the copse of course, but upon the enemy main lines. A
remarkably good and accurate barrage was put down on the German front
line, which formed a crescent within which lay the two copses,
especially on known M.G. positions; while, by request, the Australian
heavy guns from the next divisional sector northwards joined in with
crumps on strong points behind the front line. Simultaneously the
raiding party leaped up and rushed into the copse like howling
dervishes. Some hours of a deathly, eerie silence, the nerve-racking
quality of which is only known to those who have experienced it, and
made all the more impressive by the fact that it occurred on a front
which is not usually quiet, was followed by a sudden din and an
unexplained mad charge of the hated English. It must have put the fear
of God into the Germans of "Wigan Copse," for they made no effort to
resist and tried to "run for it." In fact one poor devil--a
youngster--who had been lying out in the grass on sentry (but must have