point, with another attack by the troops in Maltz Horn Trench. Direction was maintained by compass and frequent halts, the troops firing into the undergrowth as they advanced. The south end of Central Trench was rolled up and the British reached the real north end at German troops pushed north, tried to retreat to Guillemont and suffered many casualties, to small-arms fire from the defensive flank. Consolidation began by linking a line of shell-holes beyond the eastern fringe of the wood. Night assembly Six brigades with and supporting troops, had to assemble closer than to the Germans, at night, without being noticed. On 13 July, the British discovered that the Germans were eavesdropping on the field telephones of the 62nd Brigade (Brigadier-General George Gater); as a ruse, a call was made that operations had been postponed. In the 9th (Scottish) Division area, the 26th Brigade (Brigadier-General A. B. Ritchie) and the 27th Brigade (Brigadier-General S. W. Scrase-Dickens) were to lead the attack, with the 1st South African Brigade (Brigadier-General H. T. Lukin) in reserve. The 26th Brigade was to assemble on the north slope of Caterpillar Valley, with the left flank on the Montauban–Longueval road, covered by machine-gun posts on the right. The two attacking battalions were to be screened from the German lines, on the crest of a ridge south of Longueval, by four platoons with Lewis guns. The screening force went forward on the night of to a line of shell-holes made for them by 6-inch howitzers. The screening platoons were followed by three officers and from each battalion, to the parallel Bernafay Wood–Longueval and the Montauban–Longueval roads, which were the left flank positions of the battalions. Each battalion was to form up in columns of two companies and each company in column of platoons, in single rank at intervals, to make eight infantry lines. The markers stopped in threes apart and two then moved right at two tapes in succession to mark the front of the platoon waves. The battalions moved forward by companies, in single-file, over the road running south of Bernafay Wood to Montauban at and up the roads to the left markers; the platoons arrived and turned right along the tape. A section of the 26th Mortar Battery and sections of the 26th Machine Gun Company followed each battalion and the 26th Brigade assembly was complete by Two machine-gun sections stayed with the support