Having only just come out of battle, the tired and wet men, particularly of the 6th Brigade, spent hours cable laying in atrocious conditions. Having no coats they carried their waterproof sheets as capes and returned to their shell holes to find them drenched. Over the next day hundreds were evacuated with exhaustion, and many with trench feet. By the time of the attack the 6th Brigade would be down to just 600 available men, and the 7th down to 800. The 5th Brigade that had not been used in the previous attack still had 2,000 men.
Following the Twenty-Second 