The 7th Battalion Black Watch leaves the Kloosterstraat in Schijndel around 11.15 am on 23 October and reaches the Gemondsedijk junction.  From there, the battalion continues around 14.00 until it makes contact with the Germans near Sint-Michielsgestel at the T-junction Gemondseweg and Schijndelseweg (see also story 5). Two Sherman tanks of the 1st Northampton Yeomanry are hit by so-called Panzerfauste and an 88 mm gun positioned in a meadow where Sint-Michielsgestel's fire station is now. But the opposition is soon cleared and after capturing some German soldiers and taking out the cannon, the men reach the bridge over the Dommel river opposite the now demolished monastery. This is blown up by the Germans at the very last moment. With a resounding bang, the bridge breaks into pieces and falls into the water of the Dommel. 

The 7th Black Watch are able to keep up with the advance of the tanks as the infantry ride along in Kangaroos, tanks without turrets. Bill Mosely of the Northamptonshire Yeomanry drives his Sherman tank in the vanguard towards Sint-Michielsgestel. The Sherman tank in front of Bill Mosely is hit and knocked out just before the built-up area of Sint-Michielsgestel. He suspects that there is a German observer in the church tower of Sint-Michielsgestel. So he fires at the tower with his tank. Moments later they enter the village, just too late to take the bridge over the Dommel. Nevertheless, Major Small of A Company of the Black Watch sends one of his platoons in boats across. There it establishes a small bridgehead. The German defenders are no longer strong enough to dislodge the Scots. The Black Watch manage to get two more companies across before 21:30 hours and secure the bridgehead so that a new bridge can be built by the engineers. This task is accomplished during the night and by 02:00 the whole battalion is across the Dommel. The current, modern bridge, the Thomas Rennie Bridge, is named after the division commander to commemorate this action.