en now--takes a low burst of our shrapnel full in his
eyes. A high-explosive shell bursts on the parapet, and down go three
others. But they are firing calmly through all this.

Three or four Germans suddenly get up from some hole in No Man's Land,
and bolt for their trench like rabbits. Within forty yards of the German
parapet the leading men in our line find themselves alone. The line has
dwindled to a few scanty groups. These are dropping suddenly--their
comrades cannot say whether they are taking cover in shell-holes, or
whether they have been hit. The Germans are getting up a machine-gun on
the parapet straight opposite. The first two men fall back shot. Two or
three others struggle up to it--they are shot too; our men are making
desperate shooting to keep down that machine-gun. But the Germans get it
up. It cracks overhead. In this part of the line the attack is clearly
finished.

One remembers a day, some months back, when a Western Australian
battalion, after a heavy bombardment of its trench, found a German line
coming up over the crest of the hill about two hundred yards away. The
Western Australians stood up well over the parapet, and fired until the
remnant of that line sank to the ground within forty or fifty yards of
them. That line was a line of the Prussian Guard Reserve. We have had
that opportunity three or four times in the Somme battle. This time it
was the Germans who had it. The Germans were of the Prussian Foot
Guards--and it was Western Australians who were attacking.

In another part, where the South Australians attacked, they found fewer
Germans in the trench. They could see the Germans in small groups
getting their bombs ready to throw--but they were into the trench before
the Germans had time to hold them up. They killed or captured all the
German garrison, and destroyed a machine-gun, and set steadily to
improve the trench for holding it.

Everything seemed to go well in this part, except that they could get no
touch with any other of our troops in the trench. As far as they knew
the other portions of the attack had succeeded, as well as theirs. And
then things changed suddenly. After an hour a message did come from
Australians farther along in the same trench--a message for urgent help.
At the same time a similar message came from the other flank as well. A
shower of stick-bombs burst with a formidable crash from one side. A
line of Germans was seen, coming steadily along in single file