THE ANZAC ATTACK ON MOUQUET

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2870, 7 September 1916, Page 5

THE ANZAC ATTACK ON MOUQUET

A "HUGGER-MUGGER" BATTLE Australian-New Zealand Cable Association. London, September 5. Mr. Philip Gibbs writes: "One of the most valuablo factors in the British advance on Sunday was the Anzac attack oil Moucjuet Farm. Tbe men knew the ground intimately, having already explored the ruins of the farm by a strong patrol some day 6 ago, and were confident thhi they could do the same tiling again, though tho site might be difficult to hold against hostile fire; There was nowhere level ground; shell-holes were everywhere, some full of water and tmid, into which the men plunged up to their armpits, and many wero hogged. There were really no trenches to be taken, the Germans merely holding lines of shell craters, in which there wero machine-guns. The enemy was scattered in isolated groups,, with stores of bomb 3.

"It was extraordinarily difficult to at. tack such a position, because there wan no definite line. The Australians encountered horrible spasms of machinegun fire from unknown quarters on both aides and. even from behind. By the time the farm was reached the battle had broken into many separate encounters between small parties of Australians and Prussians. Despite the hug-ger-mugger fighting the Australians pushed forward, and advanced parties entered the farm and got 200 yards beyond it. Though nothing remains of the farm higher than a man, thn enemy had the usual dug-o\it6 and 'tunnels strongly protected .with timber and cement."