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.
When the attack was on the Americans fought splendidly. Merged in the larger Australian command and vieing with the war-hardened Diggers in the stress and dash of the conflict they went forward as if for a race, determined to stick through it in thick and thin and not let their new friends down. Prior to the attack the officer in command of the Americans told them that they were going into action with some of the world's best fighting men, that it was an honour to battle in such company and they must show themselves worthy of it, for the credit of the United States was in their keeping.