up to help capture this outpost. Together with four platoons of 1/39th Garhwal Rifles, they made a frontal attack at 17.00. It was 'carried out with great gallantry' and at first the Londoners suffered serious casualties, but as they neared the trench the garrison of 80 men surrendered. For the Battle of Aubers Ridge on 9 May, the Gharwal Bde was in divisional support and missed the worst of the carnage. For the opening of the Battle of Festubert on 15 May, the Gharwal Bde put in a night attack, but surprise was lost. 1/3rd Londons were in support, providing carrying parties, and once again missed the worst of this disastrous attack. During the Battle of Loos, the Meerut Division carried out a subsidiary attack on 25 September near Neuve Chapelle, known as the action of Pietre. The Gharwal Bde was held up, except for the 2/8th Gurkha Rifles, but the brigade reserves (including 1/3rd Londons) were unable to exploit this fleeting success because the communication trenches to the front were knee-deep in mud. The Indian Corps was transferred to Mesopotamia in November 1915, but its British battalions remained in France. 1/3rd Londons temporarily transferred to 139th (Sherwood Foresters) Brigade, 46th (North Midland) Division, on 6 November and then to 142nd (6th London) Brigade, 47th (2nd London) Division, on 16 November. 56th (1/1st London) Division In February 1916, the battalion returned to the 1st London Division, which was being reformed in France as the 56th (1/1st London) Division. The battalion was once more assigned to the 1st London Brigade, now numbered as the 167th (1st London) Brigade, along with the 1/1st Londons and 7th and 8th Bns Middlesex Regiment. After the reformed division had shaken down, on 4 May, 167th Brigade took over part of the line facing the Gommecourt Salient, where it was due to attack in the forthcoming Battle of the Somme. On 5 May, the battalion received a large draft of veterans of Gallipoli and Egypt from the 2/3rd Bn which was being disbanded (see below). The Gommecourt sector was static – the division's first action was on 18 May when 1/3rd Bn beat off a German raid – but working parties of the battalion were required to dig new communication trenches in preparation for the offensive, and these parties suffered a trickle of casualties from German artillery. The working parties alternated with periods holding the frontline