Parties of the 27th and 29th and machine-gun teams of the Fifth Brigade, struggling to reach the rallying point before Crater 1, lost heavily. Only one gun was brought out of action by Sergeant Naylor of the 24th. Parties of the 25th and 26th were never seen again. Lieutenant Browne of the 22d (French-Canadians) and a handful of men marched through the enemy line and after a hand-to-hand fight in an enemy trench reached Fredericton fort with only two men of his section alive. Captains Meredith and Gwynn, who were defending Fredericton, held on for two hours longer, their men falling fast around them and were then forced to retire. The Canadians had lost all the new line except a few outpost positions, and the remainder of the struggle was devoted to attempts to regain the lost ground and drive the Germans from the craters. On the morning of April 6, 1916, when headquarters learned of the German attack, supports and reserves of the Sixth Brigade were ordered forward. Two companies of the 29th were by this time with the 27th in the old British trenches and the new Canadian line beyond. The 28th occupied Voormezeele in the support center line. The 18th (Western Ontario) under Lieutenant Colonel Wigle, and 21st (Eastern Ontario) under Lieutenant Colonel Hughes, were in reserve at Dickebush. Two counterattacks were made simultaneously. Right-of-the-line bombers of the 27th and 29th headed an assault on Craters 2 and 3. Bombers of the 28th and 31st Battalions from the left center of the line were to occupy Craters 4 and 5. The troops of these two regiments had to come up from behind St.-Eloi and the Germans turned a heavy barrage of fire on them. They were unfamiliar with the ground, and seeing the outlines of two craters before them assumed these were their objectives. No one knew at the time that the craters on the left were in German hands. The attack on Craters 2 and 3 met with such a sweeping machine-gun fire from the Germans that the attack had to be abandoned. Canadian artillery bombarded the craters during the day, and it was decided to attack 4 and 5 (supposed to be Craters 2 and 3) in the evening of April 6, 1916. Soon after dark fifty or sixty Germans, who had been hiding all day in shell holes, suddenly attacked the 31st, but were swept away by a heavy fire and only a few escaped. Later in the evening the 28th moved forward in parties to the support of the much-tried 31st Battalion, making a junction with Major Daly (21st) behind the craters held by the Canadians. They were ordered to assault and capture Craters 2 and 3, but actually advanced against Craters 4 and 5. The bombers under Lieutenant V. P. Murphy, supported by Captain Styles, established themselves near the hostile craters, but owing to the darkness and impassable mud, and the ground a mass of holes, further progress could not be made.