south-west and north-west angles of Inverness Copse. The troops of Reserve Infantry Regiment 239 were too demoralised by the conditions to offer much resistance and were easily overrun. The ground was full of flooded shell holes but the 7th Queen's advanced to the east side of Inverness Copse and was vulnerable to attack from the south, because the failure to advance of right hand company after being caught on its jumping-off line by artillery and machine-gun fire. A section of infantry from the company to form the defensive flank along the southern edge, that did reach the strongpoint at the south-west corner, lost all but one man. Two platoons advanced along the north edge of the copse behind the creeping barrage and made it to the objective. After realising that they were isolated and in danger of being outflanked on the left, the platoons retired, captured a pillbox on the way and then setting up a post in Jasper Lane, where they were reinforced by two Vickers guns and the rest of the Queen's on the left, retreated close to the original front line. During the day, the Germans retook the western edge and the blockhouse at the north-western corner; later British attempts to recapture the copse failed. 54th Brigade On the right of the Brigade, the 11th Battalion Royal Fusiliers, attacked on a front and were met by massed machine-gun fire. Some troops got into the southern edge of Glencorse Wood and on the right flank and a company of the 6th Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment attached as a mopping up party, advanced to fast that it took from the pillboxes along the southern edge of the wood. On the right, some fusiliers reached Fitzclarence Farm and small engagements took place around the pillboxes, which resembled islands surrounded by a sea of mud; both sides captured and re-captured the fortresses in costly attacks and counter-attacks. The fusiliers could not gain touch with the 7th Queen's to the south and a gap separated the parties around Fitzclarence Farm from Glencorse Wood. German troops bombed along Jargon Trench and other trenches between Inverness Copse and the wood as a counter-attack began from the Copse. Enfilade fire from the south caused many casualties and the counter-attack nearly got behind the fusilier support company, forcing the British out from the most advanced posts, to a line about east of Clapham Junction. The 11th Fusiliers