again. On 1 August, Brigadier-General John Davidson, the Director of Operations at BEF HQ, recommended that the attack by II Corps should not be rushed and that fresh divisions should be used for the attack. Davidson also suggested that attacks should wait for two to three days of clear weather, to exploit the observation points gained on 31 July and two captured maps which showed the positions of camouflaged machine-gun nests. Davidson argued that it was vital for II Corps to secure the Gheluvelt Plateau. The Fifth Army corps commanders agreed that taking the area from Inverness Copse to Westhoek would not be enough. The priority given to the defence of the plateau by the German 4th Army meant that a big counter-attack to restore the front line must be expected. Rupprecht made a diary entry that and in an order on 5 August, announced that The rain that began on 31 July continued for three days and turned the ground into a morass about wide behind the new British front line. The banks of streams became bogs with few crossing-places, easily visible from German positions and frequently bombarded, especially on the Gheluvelt Plateau, which delayed the consolidation of the captured ground. Troops who deviated from the tracks could drown and roads were covered in mud and full of shell craters deep and the conditions exhausted rapidly the British troops in the front line. On 2 August, the Tank Corps recommended that the tanks should be withheld and it was agreed that they would not be used again until a dry spell. On 2 August the resumption of the offensive was postponed and on 4 August, it stopped raining and on 5 August but remained dull and stormy, with no sunshine or a drying wind and more rain expected. The Fifth Army HQ set 9 August for the II Corps attack and the main offensive to begin again on 13 August. The weather remained dull and misty until the evening of 8 August when thunder and heavy rain returned the battlefront to a swamp and the attack on the plateau was postponed until on 10 August. On the night of both sides increased the volume of artillery-fire; several soldiers from British patrols were taken prisoner by the Germans and gave away the II Corps attack. British attack preparations The power of the German artillery behind the Gheluvelt Plateau after 31