had, and in spite of all the noise they had done wonderfully little
damage. We put a dozen of them out of action till the end of the war--a
dozen that our men saw and know of; and they may have put out of action
five of ours.

As we took a tired prisoner to the hospital through the grey light of
morning, I thought I would give, for a change, an account of a
"failure."

[It was almost immediately after this that the Australians were brought
down to the Somme battle. From this time on they left the neighbourhood
of green fields and farmhouses and plunged into the brown, ploughed-up
nightmare battlefield where the rain of shells has practically never
since ceased. They came into the battle in its second stage, exactly
three weeks after the British.]




CHAPTER XV

POZIÈRES

_France, July 26th._


I have been watching the units of a certain famous Australian force come
out of action. They have fought such a fight that the famous division of
British regular troops on their flank sent them a message to say that
they were proud to fight by the side of them.