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During 6th Brigade mortar training the premature bursting of a Stokes bomb caused 20 casualties – 4 killed and 16 wounded. The accident was probably caused by a faulty shell which burst about three feet from the nozzle of the gun. Amongst those killed by the accident was 19 year-old 5058 Pte W.Mills.

The Hospital Ship ‘Dover Castle’ was torpedoed without warning at 11 a.m. with 632 patients on board, including 29 officers. All the patients were saved, although three boats were destroyed by the first explosion. The ship was sunk by a second torpedo after being cleared. 

At Bullecourt the AIF 5^th Division was relieved by the British 20^th Division, and I Anzac Corps by British IV Corps. Meanwhile the AIF 4^th Division learns that it will be involved in the Messines attack, and unlike its sister divisions of I Anzac Corps misses the longest and most complete rest granted to the infantry of the AIF. From this time onwards the AIF 4^th Division gained the reputation of the hardest worked and least rested of the Australian divisions.

One of the potentially most damaging events for the Allied forces during the First World War were the French Army mutinies which started just after the disastrous Second Battle of the Aisne, the main action in the Nivelle Offensive in April 1917. General Robert Nivelle had promised a decisive war-ending victory over the Germans in 48 hours but the shock of failure soured their mood overnight. The mutinies and associated disruptions involved, to various degrees, nearly half of the French infantry divisions stationed on the western front. The new commander General Philippe Pétain (pictured right) restored morale by talking to the men, promising no more suicidal attacks, providing rest for exhausted units, home furloughs, and moderate discipline. He held 3,400 courts martial; 554 mutineers were sentenced to death but over 90% had their sentences reprieved. The mutinies had ended by 10^th June but were kept secret from the Germans and indeed the rest of the world until the danger had long past.

The French army was bending under the strain of the war that had taken its huge toll on the nation since 1914. As a result the new plan of Petain and Foch was a rigid defensive, with the exception of a few limited attacks to assist the British during their forthcoming Ypres offensive, until the Americans would be ready in 1918. Behind this defensive they would build up the army and an immense accumulation of material including artillery, tanks and the air fleet.

In the early hours the British 173^rd Brigade began an operation to take Bullecourt, but on entering the remains of the village discovered that the Germans were in the process of withdrawing and captured 40 men engaged in demolishing the dugouts. The British penetrated beyond the village and occupied OG2, north of which the Germans were found to be holding a line of posts. With this action saw the end of the offensive on the right flank of the Arras campaign, one which resulted in 10,000 Australian casualties over the two Bullecourt battles. 

Following the failure of the French Army at the Chemin des Dames and the Second Battle of the Aisne, General Nivelle was forced to retire and he was replaced by General Petain (pictured) as the French Commander-in-Chief. General Foch was appointed as Chief of the General Staff in Paris.

The next British attempt for the capture of Bullecourt was assisted by the AIF 15^th Brigade moving along OG2 and another party of the 58^th Battalion moving across open ground. However the 58^th had been heavily bombarded in the night leading up to the assault that they had to reinforced by a company of the 59^th. The OG2 attack was met with the customary desperate bomb fight between the two sides, with the 60^th Battalion providing additional bombing squads, rifle-grenadiers and Lewis gunners. In the attack 186 Germans, trapped in a deep dugout, were taken prisoner. Junction with the 7^th Division was made and thus the northeast of the village was secure, though the Germans remained stubbornly in the southwest of the village causing serious losses for the British 91^st Brigade. That night the 15^th Brigade handed over to the 173^rd Brigade of the British 58^th Division.

Major-General Hobbs of the AIF 5^th Division took over command of the Australian position in front of Bullecourt from the 2^nd Division which had charge of this sector since 14^th April. That day and as a consequence of the decision that the British effort would next fall in Flanders, orders were issued to the Australian Artillery supporting I Anzac Corps to prepare for the move north.

At 3.45am the 20^th Brigade of the British 7^th Division with the 2^nd Gordon Highlanders and the 9^th Devon Regiment attacked Bullecourt, supported by the AIF 9^th Battalion moving westwards and the twenty-four guns of the Australian field artillery providing enfilade fire. The Highlanders following the barrage seized the trench to the west of Bullecourt and began to bomb along it. At 3.58 the 9^th Battalion started their bomb fight along OG1 and at 5.15 linked up with the forward party of the Highlanders. By night fall the flank posts of the Highlanders and the Australians interlocked and the left flank of the Australians was at last secure.

On the night of the 7^th May the 2^nd Brigade took over the left sector from the 1^st Brigade.

Just before dawn the Germans attempted another major counter-attack from the Moulin Sans Souci road, this time supported by flame-throwers, and pushed down to the Central Road. Once the flame-throwers had been neutralised, the shaken men of the 11^th and 12^th Battalions rallied and bombed their way back down OG1 and OG2. The Germans sixth and most dangerous general counter-attack had been beaten, and the 10^th Battalion now took over the right. Given the difficulty of thrusting the right flank further eastwards orders were issued for this end of the Hindenburg Line to be finally barricaded off that night in its present position, with several bays beyond to be filled in and wire entanglements to be laid.