BATTLE INCIDENTS ON THE SQMME

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2850, 15 August 1916, Page 6

BATTLE INCIDENTS ON THE SQMME

"LIKE SHEEP TO THE SLAUGHTER"

GERMAN ATTACKS AT

POZIERES

Australian-New Zealand Oablo Association.. (I!ec. August 14, 6.5 p.m.) London, August 14. Sir. Philip Gibbs mites:—"The Cer- . mans made, several attempts to regain ■ the high ground northward of Pozieres. ' A strong body of infantry on Thursday . evening attacked, but it was a curi- . ous, vain, and tragic endeavour, : -like , , 'several other.counter-attacks by units .which have''recently been brought up •jas supports, knowing nothing of the I country, and just blundering out with a kind of desperate courage. Prisoners admit that when ordered to attack ■ they regarded, themselves 'as sheep going to the ' slaughter. They only knew that the were in front and from what t'hev had heard about these. Australians there was not much hope for them'.'- ' Their only hope lay . In the guns liehmd thom, which preceded the■■ assault'with, a formidable bombardment. - , , '.'This particular attack was between the windmill, and Mouguet Farm. Tho Germans streamed in 1 open order from the quarries behind the fann, and caron ' straggling forward in irregular waves i over a distance of 750 yards: Then, our guns and mortars hurst over them, our machine-guns whipped thorn with * scourge of bullets, and the attackers fell in largo numbers. Others rau i|uickly into the Australian linos, with arm's up, and lay still. Many traversed the full quarter of a mile under this terrific concentrated fire. Tho 'Australians shot straight. They had no notion how many waves of Germans would advance, and had to kill thenv very quickly, lest they should overwhelm the trenches and ground in » which they could find cover. The Australian machine-gunners sent sheets of bullets, whild the, British gunners from 'distant, unknown places; wero sending a fierce stonn of shells, making a curlain of fire through which mon could hardly.pass alive. . None did. 1 Out of. • two battalions only five men escaped, ilea were standing on the German • parapets .calling them back, trying ta' . - save .something out of . the senseless ■ / slaughter ordered by the high command. A few stragglers ran back, while a few others crouched in shellholes. The Australians collected fifty •.- of them. , "It is a matter for/wonderment why the enemy attempts such counter-at-tacks, which are bound to end ter. German soldiers might justly call it murder. 1 Such ; operations as the last seem to show that the enemy'.s staff 1 is disorganised, and perhaps-a little demoralised by our continuous bombardment, which cuts the enemy's sig-nal'lines-and prevents the sending of supports and supplies. The Australians are still''fighting 1 in a way which : wins the admiration of the .General Staff and all the' Army!" '• ['British correspondents have a habit of loosely grouping under the word "Australian" or "Australasian" our j own forces with those/of the Commonwealth. It is known, of course, that ' in certain cases attacks have been made By forces entirely Australian, and Mr. Gihbs in this connection may be correct in his use of the word "Austra- ■ lian." ' But the earlier official accounts of the fighting at Pozieres ini , dicated that the New Zealand Forces . were participating in the operations . on tliis sector.]