5 September 1942

Around 1530 hrs 2/27^th Battalion troops start taking over the positions on Mission Ridge held by 39^th Battalion (which has now been reduced to around 185 men, including wounded and rear echelon troops and has been ordered out of the line to rest and be reinforced).

The young 39^th Diggers hand their automatic weapons, grenades, rations, blankets, medical supplies and other stores to the 2/27^th troops, who are about to engage in their first combat on the Track. They are holding the front of the ridge.

After a very rare hot meal and a mug of tea to the rear of Myola, the 2/16th troops withdraw through the 2/14th and start to take up a position along Brigade Hill behind the 2/27th. The pursuing Japanese pause at Myola to ransack the stores abandoned by the Australians, unaware that the Diggers have spiked the tins and within days dysentery will follow.