23rd Division attacked again to close a gap between the 24th and 68th brigades but the troops got stuck in mud so deep that they became trapped. Later in the day, the 24th Brigade attacked Contalmaison but was defeated by machine-gun fire and an artillery barrage. On the left, bombers of the 19th (Western) Division skirmished all day and at a warning from an observer in a reconnaissance aircraft led to the ambush of German troops advancing towards Bailiff Wood who were stopped by small-arms fire. An advance on the left flank, in support of a 12th Division attack on Ovillers, got forward about and reached the north end of Ovillers. On 9 July, two brigades of the 23rd Division spent the morning attacking south and west of Contalmaison. A battalion of the 24th Brigade established a machine-gun nest in a commanding position south of the village and part of the 68th Brigade entered Bailiff Wood, before being shelled out by British artillery. An attempt to return later that day was forestalled by a German counter-attack by parts of II Battalion and III Battalion, Infantry Regiment 183 of the 183rd Division at The attack was to reinforce the line between Contalmaison and Pozières but was repulsed with many casualties. The British attack began at on 10 July, managed to occupy Bailiff Wood and trenches either side and at after a careful reconnaissance, two battalions assembled along Horseshoe Trench, in a line long facing Contalmaison, away to the east. Two companies were sent towards Bailiff Wood to attack the north end of the village. After a thirty-minute bombardment, a creeping barrage moved in five short lifts through the village to the eastern fringe as every machine-gun in the division fired on the edges of the village and the approaches. The attack moved forward in four waves, with mopping-up parties following, through much return fire from the garrison and reached a trench at the edge of the village, forcing the survivors to retreat into Contalmaison. The waves broke up into groups which advanced faster than the barrage; the divisional artillery commander accelerated the creeping barrage and the village was captured, despite determined opposition from parts of the garrison. The flank attack on the north end also reached its objective, met the main attacking force at and sniped at the Germans as they retreated towards the second position; only of the I Battalion,