Meanwhile, hectic days and still more hectic nights were being passed near Amiens.
The reader is to imagine that elaborate preparations such as were described as the preliminaries to Cambrai and which took a month to carry out, had now to be executed in a little over a week.
Reconnaissance had to be carried out, details of plans and liaison arranged, and dumps had to be made, the last on an unprecedentedly large scale, so great a number of Tanks never having gone into action together before.
In the centre (the Australian sector) certain units in the 5th Brigade had been newly equipped with Mark V. star infantry-carrying Tanks. No one was very familiar with these machines, and so, in addition to other preparations, such units had infantry-carrying to practise with their Australians. One circumstance greatly added to the fraternal feeling of the 5th Brigade towards their familiar battle partners. As soon as the final conference was ended, General Monash laid down the principle that on no consideration should any alteration be allowed in the plans as then approved. It was therefore possible for all the Tank units to work out the details of their schemes in perfect confidence.
The battlefield lay on either bank of the river Somme, which ran to the north of the area of attack, and as far as Péronne, almost at right angles to the lines of the two armies.
South of it, a number of gullies, roughly parallel to the battle front, ran down to the river from high ground which formed the watershed between the Somme and the small river Luce.
Two of these steep gullies, the Cérisy Valley, and another which ran from Morcourt almost to Harbonnières, were to be great features in the battle, forming as they did admirable cover for the concealment of batteries or for the assembling of troops for a counter-attack.
The following notes on the Luce were given to the author by Major Hotblack:—
“The river Luce, though only a small marshy stream, formed the great difficulty of the plan of operations.
“Part of it was in the French lines, and as to put up fresh bridges would have attracted the enemy’s attention, the attacking troops had to cross it in a few places and deploy afterwards in the dark.