The Australian official historian described the scene at the centre of the attack front, with the Brigade Major of the 1st Brigade at the tunnel entrance and the CO of the 3rd Battalion at the exits:

In the opening of the main tunnel – B5, leading forward from the old firing line to the new underground line – stood Major King, whistle in one hand, watch in the other. At the corresponding opening in the underground line was Major McConaghy of the 3rd, ready to repeat the signal for the attack – three blasts of the whistle. Watches had been twice compared and corrected, and while the officers gave a few last hints to their men they kept an eye on the minute-hand as though they were starting a boat-race. ‘Five twenty-seven – get ready to go over the parapet,’ said a young officer crouched in the corner of one fire-step, glancing at his wrist-watch. Almost immediately the order came: ‘Pull down the top bags in that recess.’ The men on the step dragged down the uppermost row of sandbags, thus rendering the exit easier. ‘Prepare to jump out,’ said the officer [Capt D.T. Moore], putting his whistle between his teeth… A whistle sounded and was repeated shrilly along the front. In a scatter of falling bags and earth the young officer and his men scrambled from the bay. Rifle-shots rang out from the enemy’s trenches, gradually growing into a heavy fusillade. One of the men leaving that particular bay fell back, shot through the mouth. From every section of the Pimple, and from the holes of the forward line, troops were similarly scrambling; the sunny square of the Daisy Patch and the scrub south of it were full of figures running forward. (Charles Bean, War Correspondent)¹⁸

On reaching the Turkish trenches, in many places ‘instead of a trench, they were confronted by a continuous sandy mound forming the roof of a covered gallery.’¹⁹. The Turks had roofed their trenches with heavy timbers, which were impossible to remove and were largely unbroken by the bombardment. In places New Zealand and British howitzer fire had smashed the timbers and nearly half of the garrison had additionally retreated into mine galleries; the Australians then reached their lines too swiftly for them to emerge and man the fire steps. The shelters and tunnels thus became death-traps for many of the front-line troops.

As the Turkish front line was fought over, the opening up of the tunnels to supply the attackers was only slowly achieved. Bean describes a slow stream of walking wounded from B5 tunnel. It was not practicable to bring reserve troops through the tunnel; the leading company had to be taken over the open. The two remaining companies were ‘trickled slowly through’ and then dashed the remaining distance to the old Turkish line. By sundown, through heavy fighting, the Lone Pine position was secured against counterattack. Problems were encountered by 2nd Field Company in all three tunnels which were supposed to provide access across no man’s land to supply the captured position. In B5 tunnel 36 sappers, whose task it was to open up the tunnel for communication, had moved forward of the underground line prior to the attack to make way for the infantry. By 5pm, however, 30 were affected by gas from the mine blown from a branch gallery (B37). Struggling with the effects, they only managed to create a decent air hole at 8pm and could not open the end of the tunnel to the surface until 9pm. A sap dug from B5 tunnel to Lone Pine was not completed until 1am. Parties breaking through the other tunnels (B6 and B8) discovered the overhead cover to be 7ft 6in, much thicker than expected. B8 was opened by 4am but required deepening, while B6 was extended to meet a Turkish tunnel, which was accomplished by 8am.²⁰