advance and then launched an armoured riposte. This initially gained ground but was stalled when British armour moved up and the two sides duelled in the confined terrain. Informed during the afternoon that a big British offensive was under way further east, SS-Standartenführer Kurt Meyer of 12th SS Panzer called off the counter-attack and ordered his tank companies to return to their positions south of Rauray. During the rest of the day the 49th Division was able to make progress, eventually halting just north of Rauray. At 0730 the 44th (Lowland) Infantry Brigade and the 46th (Highland) Infantry Brigade of the 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division, supported by the 31st Tank Brigade moved off their start lines behind a rolling barrage fired from 344 guns. The 46th Brigade initially advanced without armoured support, because in bypassing the mine and booby trap-ridden village of Le Mesnil-Patry, its tanks were forced to negotiate minefields flanking the village. The 2nd Battalion, Glasgow Highlanders faced only light resistance, while the 9th Battalion The Cameronians, ran into the grenadiers of the 12th SS Panzer Division, who had allowed the barrage to pass over their positions before opening fire. Reuniting with their tanks at around 1000, by midday the two battalions were fighting for control of their initial objectives; Cheux and Le Haut du Bosq. The 44th Brigade encountered little opposition until coming under machine gun fire at a small stream, following which German resistance was much heavier. Between 0830 and 0930, the 6th Battalion, The Royal Scots Fusiliers and the 8th Battalion, The Royal Scots reached their initial objectives of Sainte Manvieu and La Gaule. After much hand to hand fighting they believed the villages to be captured just after midday, although they later found that some German remnants were holding out. Tanks and infantry from the 12th SS and the 21st Panzer divisions launched two counter-attacks to regain Sainte Manvieu but were repulsed with the aid of intensive artillery fire. The main German opposition in this section of their outpost line, had been from part of the I Battalion, 26th Panzergrenadier Regiment, which had been mostly overrun and the divisional pioneer battalion. The Germans in Rauray, which had not been captured the previous day, were able to subject the British brigades to observed artillery and indirect tank fire, causing considerable casualties and destruction, especially within the village of Cheux. At 1250 a squadron of the