The retreating enemy had been pursued across the Somme by the 32nd Division, which had been attached temporarily to the Australians.

This Division now became part of the newly-constituted IX Corps (Lt.-Gen.

Sir W.Braithwaite), which was to bear such a glorious part in the concluding chapter of the War, and which consisted of 1st, 6th, 32nd and 46th Divisions.
The 32nd Division had followed the enemy without much incident up to the large Holnon Wood, three and a half miles west of St.Quentin, and it was there that the Division relieved it on night 13/14th September, with the 1st Division on the left and the 34th (French) Division on the right.
It was expected that the enemy would stand on the heights which command St.Quentin to the west and south, but it was not known whether their resistance would be strong or not, as they were much disorganized.
The 1st and 6th Divisions, hand in hand with the French, were ordered to capture this tactical line on 18th September, as a starting-point for the attack on the Hindenburg Line, which ran just outside St.
Quentin to the canal at Bellenglise.
To the 18th Infantry Brigade was entrusted the task of securing a line well clear of Holnon Wood for the forming-up line on the 18th, and in doing so it first had to clear the wood and establish posts at the edge, then push forward.

The selected forming-up line included to us Holnon Village on the right and next to the French.
On the morning of the 16th September the 11th Essex, after an unsuccessful attempt to push forward during the night, attacked under a barrage and advanced from the line of posts taken over a little way inside the wood to a line of trenches just clear of the wood, capturing in this small operation forty-six prisoners.

It was now arranged for the 1st, 6th and 34th (French) Divisions to advance simultaneously to secure the above-mentioned starting line.