Down the steep banks clambered the men, flung themselves into the water, and with life-belts, and any other aid that came handy, crossed the Canal under fire, and clambered up the opposite bank.

And the achievement is all the more welcome to British pride in British pluck, when it is remembered that, according to the German document I have already quoted, it was an impossible one.

"The deep canal cutting from the southern end of the canal tunnel ...

with its high steep banks constitutes a strong obstacle.

_The enemy will hardly attack here._" So writes the German officer describing the line.
But it was precisely here that "the enemy" did attack!--capturing prisoners (4,000 of them by the end of the day, with 70 guns) and German batteries in action, before the German Command had had time to realise the direction of the attack.
It was not, however, at this point that the severest fighting of the battle occurred.