Valery-sur-Somme by fire, to stop them being used to reinforce the Abbeville bridgehead; the Composite Regiment was to remain in reserve at St Léger. The French divisions came under the command of Fortune, having recently arrived and having had little time to prepare or reconnoitre. There were few photographs from air reconnaissance and the briefing of the troops was rushed, some parts of the 31st Division only arriving before zero hour. The German defences were mostly unknown and there were no aircraft to conduct artillery observation sorties, to direct the guns onto artillery emplacements and infantry forming-up areas. Zero hour was set for and a mist filled the Somme valley, light enough for the attackers to assemble but not for this to be seen from afa. At an Allied artillery bombardment fell on woods around Beinfay and Villers; the 2nd Seaforth advanced to capture German positions on the fringes of the woods, despite the French heavy tanks not arriving. The objectives were captured but by the time that the French tanks appeared, the barrage had stopped. As the tanks drove between the Blangy–Abbeville road and the woods they ran onto minefield, where they were engaged by German anti-tank guns and artillery. Several tanks triggered mines, blew up or caught fire and more were knocked out by the German guns but the rest reached the foot of Mont Caubert and Mesnil Trois Foetus. The 4th Seaforth were due to follow up supported by light tanks and when three arrived, they advanced on the south-east side of the woods near Villers, where they were received by massed machine-gun fire from Mont de Caubert and repulsed. When the heavy tanks were ordered back to the start line, only six of the tanks and the tanks returned. The attack of the 4th Camerons south of Caubert failed against well dug-in German machine-guns, although some troops advanced far enough to fight hand-to-hand. Two platoons got into Caubert and were cut off, the 152nd Brigade losing in its attack. On the left, an attack by a regiment of the 31st (Alpine) Division was quickly stopped by German troops dug in among woods to the west of Mesnil Trois Foetus but the attack of the 153rd Infantry Brigade on the left flank had more success. The 1st Black Watch attacked from the Cahon valley and reached Petit Bois and the 1st Gordon attacked from Gouy, pushed the