The 2/24th Battalion had started to push northeast at 12:40am on 26 October 1942. The over-optimism continued with a plan to push some 3,000 yards across enemy positions. British intelligence thought that the area would be held by Italians, but they were actually Germans with a few italians. The right company was moving along the wire front. They had split the platoons across the wire. They had been fortunate to be able to move forward fairly freely, but at 100 yards from the objective they hit an enemy strong point. They attacked the position and took it, but the company commander took a serious wound that put him out of action. The position they took had an 88mm gun with forty men, both German and Italian. After that, they were able to advance to their objective.
The plan for the left company was to move forward, move left, and make contact with the 2/48th Battalion. After that, they were supposed to dig in on the northwest "spur" of Trig 29. They had two lieutenant company commanders wounded, so they had a Sergeant-Major as company commander by late in the day. They managed to take several enemy posts. A sergeant "led the attack" and took two posts by himself.
Then there was the attack on the Fig Orchard. Several posts were taken and when they took the Fig Orchard, they discovered that the post was a headquarters and was dug in very deep. One attacking company went past the Fig Orchard and ended up near Thompson's Post. There were two Australian companies and they found themselves under fire from anti-tank guns and mortars. The guns and mortars were located in a post about three hundred yards in front. By 4am, the 2/24th Battalion commander decided that the battalion had taken too many casualties, so he had them pull back about a thousand yards, which put them on a reverse slope. Their right flank was occupied by the "composite force", which was under fire from Thompson's Post and had no cover. This is based on the account in Vol.III of the Australian Official History.
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