While the attacks of September 20th and 26th gave us
a firm hold of the southern part of the ridge, where it is crossed by the Menin road, the two recent attacks were designed to extend our hold of the ridge northward towards Passchendaele, and the railway to Staden and ThOurout which rung between its northern slopes and the Houthulst Forest. Sir Douglas Haig on the morning of Thursday week advanced on a front of eight miles between the Menin road and the Stadon railway. By a marvellous piece of good fortune he had anticipated by a few minutes a heavy German attack on our front. The five enemy divisions massing for the assault were either caught in our barrage and wiped out, or were destroyed by our infantry advancing behind the curtain of shells. The advance then continued, in two stages, as it had been designed. The Australians in the centre gcit well over the centre of the ridge beyond Broodecinde. English troops on the left, in the marshy ground below the ridge, took the larger part of Poelcappelle. Four thousand four hundred and forty- six prisoners, including one hundred and fourteen officers, and a few guns were captured. The enemy was so demoralized by his heavy losses at the outset that his counter-attacks were delayed and entirely ineffective.
