 The Japanese abandoned Coconut Ridge that night , while in the morning the Australians brought up three replacement tanks . At around 7 : 00 am , an Australian patrol scouted the ridge and an hour later a platoon attack was put in , confirming that the defenders had gone . As battlefield clearance operations got underway , the tanks that had been disabled the day before were also repaired , bringing the total number of Matildas available to seven . In the early afternoon , the advance was resumed , however the Australians only managed to progress a further 250 yards ( 230 m ) before they were halted by stiff opposition from Japanese armed with 37 mm anti @-@ tank guns . A number of these pieces were destroyed and at least 40 Japanese were killed or wounded , but Japanese snipers inflicted a number of casualties upon the Australians , and although none were fatal it prevented any further gains as the 2 / 48th spent most of the day hunting the snipers in the trees . Elsewhere , in front of the 2 @,@ 200 feature and on the southern flank , only limited progress was made by the Australians , who suffered a number of casualties from Japanese 75 mm mountain guns before these were silenced by a bombardment by the 2 / 12th Field Regiment . At dusk , the Australians dug in less than 30 yards ( 27 m ) from the Japanese defence line and sporadic fighting continued throughout the night . 
