trench-mortar bombs with instantaneous fuses, which would detonate under the pressure of a wagon but not of a man's foot.

In addition five anti-tank 18-pounder guns were placed in positions of vantage.

The wire was very broad and thick.

The position would, indeed, have been almost impregnable had there been sufficient time to complete it, and had there been separate troops for counter-attack.
The ground was a portion of that wrested from the enemy in the Cambrai offensive of November-December 1917, but had only improvised trenches.
A month's hard frost in January had militated against digging, and though there were a complete front trench and reserve trench, the support trenches hardly existed, and dug outs were noticeable by their absence.

The front was 4,500 yards in extent, the three brigades in line--18th on right, 71st in centre, 16th on left--on approximately equal frontages.