BATTLE INCIDENTS ON THE SOMME

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2888, 28 September 1916, Page 5

BATTLE INCIDENTS ON THE SOMME

THE CAPTURE OF LESBODEFS DASHING ADVANCE Australian-New Zealand Gable Association. (Bee. September 2", 8.30 p.m.) London, September 26. Mr. PhiKp Gibbs writes: "The enemy massed many machine-guns against us. It was bard, fierce fighting, and they did not_ yield easily on the first and second lines, though, afterwards, when pur men came on top of them some ran. if they could. The enemy's guns were quick to barrage our lines. Our men along the Morval-Lesboeufs Road went through a curtain of fire, and trenches and villages, in a rapid and irresistible assault. The trenches were attacked by a body of troops which had already been sorely tried by great and successful achievements ' elsewhere. They were' tired in body, but their spirit was alert and keen, and they advanced grandly. The whole operation was_ carried out without heavy casualties, excent at ono point, where ma-chine-s;uns in a strong emplacement caused a temporary check. "By 3.30 p.m. all the south-west of Morval and the whole village of Lesboeufs was in our hands. At (5 p.m. the airmen reported that the Germans wero withdrawing their batteries. Holier up, between- Lesbooufs and Guoudecourfc, we did not make so much progress,''and the enemy was able to maintain the defence of the village of Gueudecourt, thousrh the British forced their way to its outskirts in the face of a. machine-gun fire."