The 22nd Battalion was relieved at Bullecourt by the 2nd Battalion and moved in small parties to the sunken road between Noreuil and Longatte. Owing to the severity of the losses, the Battalion was acting as a Company, and with each Company as a Platoon.
Meanwhile the captured position was now over 1,100 yards, with the 1st Brigade on the left and 3rd Brigade on the right, but still just connected by the one Pioneer Trench (Central Road) back to the railway embankment. By this time the trenches occupied by both sides had been largely destroyed by shell-fire. Indeed the shelling on the 5th May was of an intensity not experienced since Pozieres, with men being buried and having to be dug out with haste by their comrades.
Following the Twenty-Second 