ABSTRACT
The Germans were well supplied with armour, heavy weapons and ammunition, were comparatively fresh and could remain in the protection of their trenches, house positions or armoured vehicles. The 1st Battalion attack moved on, Major Perrin-Brown's T Company on the grassy bank on the left of the riverside road and Major Stark's S Company on the esplanade alongside the river itself, though neither company mustered more than a platoon's worth of men. The Intelligence Officer, Lieutenant Vedeniapine, came back, badly wounded with mortar splinters in his back and chest and reported that Lieutenant-Colonel Fitch had been killed by the same mortar bomb that had wounded him. The Germans saw the 11th Battalion forming up for their move northwards and turned their mortars on them. German tanks also appeared, having moved round the north of the screen of British anti-tank guns which had always been just in the rear of the attacking battalions.
