On this night, the 24th, the Australians attacked, driving the enemy back into Villers-Bretonneux. The struggle was a fierce one in the dim moonlight and costly to the enemy, who disputed the ground step by step with bayonet and bomb, through the dark streets lit up by the flash of explosions, and ghastly with the shrieks of the wounded and dying. The area of battle was heavy with the gas which had been thrown into the town in the earlier part of the day and was still filling shell-hole, creek and cranny. Neither side dared to shell the place, as the artillery of both friend and enemy were unaware what part of the village was occupied by their own troops. And so, unaccompanied by the roar of guns, the grim struggle went on in the darkness, the Germans filled with the lust of dominance, and the Australians nerved by the sad sights which they had seen on the road of sorrow that led from Amiens to the country in the rear. Dawn saw the village cleared of the enemy and saw, too, the dead lying in heaps on the pavement and gutters. Australians who lived through that night are of opinion that never yet has the bayonet found so many victims in one fight. And never was a battle so fierce. The Peninsula was terrible, Pozieres horrible, Polygon ghastly, but Villers-Bretonneux was sheer, undiluted hell. THE CHARGE The night is still and the air is keen, Tense with menace the time crawls by-- The ruined houses in front are seen Blurred in outline against the sky. The dead leaves float in the sighing air, The darkness moves like a curtain drawn-- A veil which the morning sun will tear From the face of death. We charge at dawn. CHAPTER III TOWARDS PERONNE We passed through Lamotte-en-Santerre, a village in complete ruin like all other villages on the road eastwards from Amiens. The road to Hamel branches off here, and we were shown the place from a distance, Hamel, where the Australians fought side by side with the Americans and came to know the worth of the New Allies which had entered the war. The Australians often speak of the Americans. The former are very proud of the fact that the Yankees on their first attack were attached to the Diggers, and the soldiers of both countries fought shoulder to shoulder in the fight for Hamel. This was on the fourth of July, "some Fourth," as the Americans say. The Americans lived among the Australians for some days, and in that short space of time they came to know them as if they were their own countrymen.