With the expectation of the coming German offensive, the need to build intelligence on where the blow was most likely to fall increased. Patrols were sent out to capture and identify the opposing troops, such as by the 57th & 59th Battalions of the AIF 5th Division, but it was often the attempts by the Germans and the capture of their patrols that supplied the necessary information. Morale in the Australian Corps was high with the expectation that this time, as the defenders, they could do some serious damage to the enemy.
Following the Twenty-Second 