Directly the attack had been decided upon, Tanks and Australians began their combined training in the area of the 5th Tank Brigade. Tank units were at once permanently affiliated to corresponding Australian infantry units with whom they were to fight, and by this means a very close comradeship was cultivated. It was (tradition relates), most necessary that some special steps should be taken to ensure the confidence of the Australian infantry in the Tank Corps, for, in the absence of artillery preparation, upon the Tanks would almost entirely depend the success and prestige of the Australians in this first Allied offensive since the March disaster. Now the Australians, though having, as it were, a natural affinity for the activity and surprise of a Tank as against a prepared artillery attack, were not inclined to bestow their approval on the Tanks without due cause being given. They still had vivid memories of the tragedy of errors of the Bullecourt incident in 1917. They were, however, very open-minded, and the battle partners had not long been in training together before their relations were particularly cordial. Coy and hard to please as were the Australians in the beginning, the triumphant success of their partnership in battle left them no memory of their earlier shyness, and made them vociferous in their praises of a combination that the Tanks had long felt would prove notably effective. The plan of the attack soon took exact shape. It is worth more or less detailed consideration, as it was upon the lines of the Battles of Cambrai and Hamel that all set Tank attacks were afterwards based. [63]“The operation was to be conducted as a direct advance of infantry and Tanks in two waves, under cover of a rolling artillery barrage. From a Brigade point of view, the points of chief interest lay, first, in the preliminary arrangements with the Australian Corps and the infantry concerned; secondly, in the somewhat intricate plans for assembling Tanks at their start lines with due provision for concealment; and, thirdly, in the methods devised for bringing up large quantities of infantry supplies to the final objective. At a conference held by the Australian Corps three days prior to the action the plans were finally settled and no alteration in these was permitted after that date. Thus infantry and Tank officers were able to confer in perfect faith that their mutual arrangements would be carried out without change, and this method was adhered to in all subsequent operations of a prepared type with the Australian Corps. Tanks were employed on a scale that was large in proportion to the front attacked, the saving of casualties to the infantry being made the most important factor in the plan.”