Hampshires and Somerset regiments were ordered to make charge to clear the German trenches near Armentieres, northern France only fifty yards away. The ground was thick with soft mud, but they cleared them out, they remained there till nightfall. As the trenches were untenable, being half full of water, the men decided to evacute and return. On the way back searchlights and rockets suddenly flared up, and amid a hurricane of shells, 150 men were killed.