More about the 9th Australian Division plan for an attack

The attack by the 9th Australian Division would hit the coast road and railway. The attacker vehicles would need to cross the "railway embankment". The plan envisioned the engineers would blow up the rail line and then use a bulldozer to move away the dirt from the embankment. A field company, the 2/3rd was added because the engineers had some many responsibilities. Brigadier Ramsey commanded the artillery. The artillery had 360 guns in "12 field regiments and 3 medium" regiments.

The plan was devised by General Morshead, who issued the outline at 5pm on 29 October. He passed his final plan to Brigadier Whitehead at 7am on 30 October. The plan included having the 24th Brigade relieving the 26th Brigade during 31 October to 1 November. He wrote later that "Whitehead does not want any tanks".

There was a lot of enemy action. The enemy attacked the 2/15th Battalion as many as four times during the period from midnight until dawn. One enemy attack had penetrated, almost reaching the anti-tank guns. In the end, they were able to push back all the attacks and regroup on the line. They thought that it seemed that the enemy had been building up the area where the attack was planned. General Morshead was aware that two battalions were reduced in strength. He decided to use the 2/3rd Pioneer Battalion as a reserve, available for use as needed. It the pioneers were not needed, they would be used to attack the enemy lines north of the coast road. The pioneers had a lot of possible responsibilities. In order of priority, they should be ready to help the 2/32nd Battalion. If that was not needed, they would help the 2/24th Battalion take Thompson's post. If they were not needed there, they would help the 2/48th Battalion take the area from the road to the sea. If that was not needed, they would do what was originally planned, to move north to the coast. This is based on the account in Vol.III of the Australian Official History.