uld ever admit that it was necessary. As
one report from an Australian boy said, "The reinforcement has arrived.
Captain X---- may tell you that the Australians are done. Rot!"

Whether they were done or whether they were not, they spoke of those
Canadian bombers in a way it would have done Canadian hearts good to
hear. Australians and Canadians fought for thirty-six hours in those
trenches inextricably mixed, working under each others' officers. Their
wounded helped each other from the front. Their dead lie and will lie
through all the centuries hastily buried beside the tumbled trenches and
shell-holes where, fighting as mates, they died.

* * * * *

And the men who had hung on to that flank almost within shouting
distance of Mouquet for two wild days and nights--they came out of the
fight asking, "Can you tell me if we have got Mouquet Farm?"

We had not. The fierce fighting in the broken centre had enabled us to
hold all the ground gained upon the crest. But through this same gap the
Germans had come back against the farm. They swarmed in upon its
garrison, driving in gradually the men who were holding that flank.
Under heavy shell-fire the line dwindled and dwindled until the Western
Australians, who had won the farm and held it for five hours, numbered
barely sufficient to make good their retirement. The officer left in
charge there, himself wounded, ordered the remnant to withdraw. And the
Germans entered the farm again.

But on the crest the line held. The Prussian Guard Reserve
counter-attacked it three times, and on the last occasion the
Queenslanders had such deadly shooting against Germans in the open as
cheered them in spite of all their fatigue. I saw those Queenslanders
marching out two days later with a step which would do credit to a
Guards regiment going in.

So ended a fight as hard as Australians have ever fought.

Mouquet Farm was taken a fortnight later in a big combined advance of
British and Canadians. The Farm itself held out many hours after the
line had passed it, and was finally seized by a pioneer battalion,
working behind our lines.

CHAPTER XXV

ON LEAVE TO A NEW ENGLAND

_Back in France._

It was after seven weeks of very heavy fighting. Even those whose duty
took them rarely up amongst the shells were almost worn out with the
prolonged strain. Those who had been fighting their turns up in the
powdered trenches came out from time to tim