lank, not on the
hill-top. The country behind that crest, sloping gradually down to the
valley of Courcelette and beyond, where the German field batteries were
firing and where the Germans could come and go unseen--all this was so
far an unknown land into which no one on the British side had peered
since the battle began.

Six days later the Australians went for that position again. They
attacked just after dusk. There was enough light to make out the face of
the country as if by a dim moonlight. They were the same troops who had
made the attack a week before, because there was a determination that
they, and they alone, should reach that line. The artillery had been
pounding it gradually during the week.

The German troops who were holding that part were about to be relieved.
They had suffered from the slow, continual bombardment. There were deep
dug-outs in their trenches, where they saved the men as far as possible,
but one after another these would be crushed or blocked by a heavy
shell. The tired companies had lost in some cases actually half their
men by this shell fire, losing them slowly, day by day, as a man might
bleed to death. The remainder had their packs made up ready to march out
to rest. The young officer of one of the relieving battalions was
actually coming into the trenches at the head of his platoon--when there
crashed on them a sudden hail of shell fire. The officer extended his
men hurriedly and pushed on. It was about half-past ten by German time,
which is half-past nine by ours.

The first sight that met him, as he reached the support line of German
trenches, was two wounded Australians lying in the bottom of it. So the
British must be attacking, he thought. He ordered his platoon to advance
over the trench and counter-attack. But in the dark and the dust they
lost touch and straggled to the north--he saw no more of them. He
tumbled on with two men into a shell crater and began to improve it for
defence--then they found Australians towering around them in the dark.
They surrendered.

It was a most difficult business to get the various parties for our
attack into position in the night, and some of the troops behind had to
be pushed forward hurriedly. In consequence the officers out in front
had to carry on as if theirs were the only troops in the attack, and see
the whole fight through without relying upon supports. The way in which
junior officers and N.C.O.'s have acted upon their own initiat