Although initially intended as the third wave of the brigade attack, the second wave 12th Battalion had moved to the left as a result of the German barrage, and the 10th effectively joined the second wave on its right. The 10th had also moved forward to avoid the heavy barrage, and had become intermingled with the first wave formed by the 11th Battalion. When a machine gun in a pillbox held up the leading troops, Wilder-Neligan sent one of his "storm" platoons to outflank the German position. When the platoon commander was killed, the South Australians "went mad" according to Wilder-Neligan, killing rather than capturing most of the German garrison. When the first objective was reached, Wilder-Neligan had his battalion fill the gap in the line to the right of the 12th Battalion. As soon as the two carrying and "mopping-up" companies reached the second objective, Wilder-Neligan left them there to dig in. During a pause in the battle while his two "storm" companies were waiting to go forward to the third objective, Wilder-Neligan had specially procured copies of the "Daily Mirror" and "Daily Mail" newspapers distributed for his men to read. With the help of the heavy creeping barrage, the third objective was quickly taken. During the battle, the unit suffered 207 casualties. On the day following the battle, he was billed by a London newspaper as "The Eccentric Colonel", due to his distribution of newspapers to his waiting troops.