There were Germans, not Australians, in the trenches on the Tasmanians'
left--in the same trench as they. The flank there was in the air. There
was nothing to do except to barricade the trench and hold the flank as
best they could.

And for the next two days they held it, shelled with every sort of gun
and trench mortar, although fresh companies of the Prussian Guard
Reserve constantly filed in to the gap which existed between this point
and Mouquet Farm. Their old leader, who had promised to reach that
trench with them, was not there. They found him lying dead within a few
yards of it, straight in front of the machine-gun which they had
silenced. So Littler had kept his promise--and lost his life. They had a
young officer and a few sergeants. All through that day their numbers
slowly dwindled. They held the trench all the next night, and in the
grey dawn of the second day a sentry, looking over the trench, saw the
Germans a little way outside of it. As he pointed them out he fell back
shot through the head. They told the Queenslanders, and the
Queenslanders came out instantly and bombed from their side, in rear of
the Germans. The Queensland officer was shot dead, but the Germans were
cleared out or killed.

That afternoon the Germans attacked that open flank with heavy
artillery. For hours shell after shell crashed into the earth around. A
heavy battery found the barricade and put its four big shells
systematically round it. They reduced the garrison as far as possible,
and four or five only were kept by the barricade. They were not all
Australians now.

For the end of the Australian work was coming very near. But that