were now working down the tunnel and
their progress was extremely difficult as each man was carrying a pick
and a shovel as well as his rifle. Before they emerged an urgent message
was passed back for a supply of bombs and the consolidating party was
stopped while these were passed through. A party under Lieut. Dow, whose
objective was to remove one of the barricades, followed the assault
party. Lieut. Dow was killed as he entered the enemy trench. Lieut.
Kirbe, in charge of another party detailed to deal with the barricade at
the nullah, was also killed a few minutes after leaving the tunnel, but
Sergt. Waddell, the N.C.O. of the party, doing splendid work, had the
barricade completed by 4 o'clock, which rendered the passage across the
nullah from the exit of the tunnel to the trench quite secure.

Another small party whose work was to establish a dump for stores and
ammunition went forward under the charge of Lieut. Turner and C.Q.M.S.
Stewart. Lieut. Turner was mortally wounded and C.Q.M.S. Stewart killed
before the dump was established. It will be gathered that the casualties
were extremely heavy, all five officers of "C" Company having been
killed or wounded within a few minutes of entering the trench, and at 4
o'clock Captain Morrison was taken from his company which was in support
and sent forward into G11A to take command.

The light was now beginning to fail and it was apparent that no further
progress could be made to secure the junction of the central
communication trench with G11A. It was reported to Brigade Headquarters
that no further progress could be made that night and all energies were
applied to the consolidation of the portion of the objective actually
secured. From the very beginning the work had been carried on with
difficulty owing to the congestion in the trench. Steps were taken,
however, to get the casualties removed and the work was carried on more
rapidly. The enemy's communication trench was severely bombed by the
grenade teams which had been established at the various stations and the
enemy bombers became much less troublesome.

The casualties in the west attack were: killed, three officers and six
other ranks; wounded, four officers and thirty-one other ranks, being in
all nearly one-third of those employed in the actual attack. We were
unfortunate in the fact that nearly all the officer casualties occurred
within a few minutes of the commencement of the attack, and it reflects
great cr