The Hamel Attack.

Levin Daily Chronicle, 25 July 1918, Page 3

The Hamel Attack.

FOLLOWING THE TANKS. PLUCKY AMERICANS. (Commonwealth O.iicial Correspondent; LONDON, July 8.'"" Tho prisoners taken in the Hamcl attack now (Sunday) night total 1500.

Many of the details of the fighting by which Hamel was captured arc intensely interesting. When our barrage came down and the infantry advanced in the grey morning light towards Hamcl, the wind continually carried the drifting mist from the smoke barrage across the front. This made the dawn far darker than it would otherwise have been. The burst of our own shells was most difficult to see through the mist ahead. The Australians, many of whom had followed a barrage like this many times before, could often only tell where the barrage was by seeing tlieir own shrapnel shells bursting overhead. - ' The American infantry, who had n.'t seen or heard a shell before, plmjit'ly faced the extraordinary difficulty, Knowing where they were by keeping an eye on the Australians. "We just looked out to see that we kept in line with them,'' said one of their officers. '' So long as we kept going while they wire going we knew that we were all right.'" At the beginning of the fight one American platoon, for example, was pushing straight on into our barrage. An Australian company commander saw this, and pulled it back. Next time when the barrage started he noticed that this platoon had not nioved to follow it. "Well, how about getting on with the light," he asked. "Has the barrage moved yet?" they asked him simply. "Why, it has gone on a good half-minute," -he said. The Americans were up at once and hurrying after it. The men of the two forces worked shoulder to shoulder wherever the fighting was thick. An Australian Lewis gunner wn.s facing a German maehineguji team with his gun at his hip when nn American sergeant dashed out and' bayoneted three. Another Australian with two Americans who spoke German was detailed to search for dugouts,. Working by themselves immediately after the attacking troops passed they found a dugout which realised important captures—a battalion commander, three officers, and 23 men. Many Americans are still wearing the colours of the Australian battalions to which they were attached. Many others, who should not have been in this fight, hid themselves successfully when ordered to go out. Indeed, Americans lost their lives fighting beside _ the Australians in Hamel who by rights should have been many miles away. Never a. firmer friendship was evor sealed than on this battlefield. One American platoon went in under aii Australian officer. When he was hit it went out under the guidance of his runner,, who had experience from other battlefields. Three times in one corner of this fight one heard of privates playing the part of officers. One company commandev, in the dense smoke drifting through Hamcl Wood, lost touch of his main body. Later he found it again. It had gone on exactly as planned, swung round the flank of the village, then struck in along the eross Toad, and proceeded to mop up the dugouts till the programme was finished to the letter. , At tho opposite corner of the village an Australian corporal found in a house, which was burning from the shell fire, a dump of rifle ammunition and bombs. This turned out to be an old store of British ammunition which had remained there since the village of Hamel was taken by the Germans on April 4. The corporal saved from the house 73,000 rounds of ammunition and some bombs. The same Australians who fought at Bullecourt, where tho tanks were not so successful, arc now full of warm praise for the tanks. Tiin<" ■ifter time the tanks went straight at the obstacles which the infantry wanted removed and flattened them out. One tank moved straight along the bank of a sunken road, breaking down the shelters on the whole length where the Germans had been holding out. Naturally the Germans would not face them, though they fired on the tanks with a special giant rifle. "Just the sort of thing one would expect the German anti-tank rifle to be," one officer told us. But out of a whole battalion the tanks only had twelve men wound;d. The tanks constantly rubbed out nachine-gun posts where the Germans •lid not await their approach. "Australian infantry would come up, point out a machine-gun, and ask us to smash it," said one tank officer. "And when we reached the objective the Austra'ians sat about the top of the trenches tmusing themselves firing off rifle grenades. Stout fellows!" That's what a British tank officer said of the infantry. If he only knew the Australians vere expressing exactly the same sentiment, though in different words, about him. The Australian infantry behaved precisely as the Australians might know they would behave. Here is one last example. the line swep_t on in the rrrey light past an awkward point known as "Pear Trench" machineguns opened from alioad and the platoon commander was In the idvancing wave one big, quiet, slowmoving, slow-speaking South Australian caught from the corner of his eye the dim forms of about a dozen heads and shoulders behind the bank perhaps 70 vards away from tho top of the bank, then came the flash of machinegunfire. The youngster immediately made towards these Germans. When he got within 50 yards the German officer : n the partv fired at him with his revolver, but" missed. The Australian fired his Lewis gun from his hip and killed every German in the party except one, and he made a rush at him. The Australian, whose Lewis gun magazine was now empty, hit t'le German over the head with the butt-end of his revolver and then pliot li:n. There were twelve German soldiers and one officer in that party. - Later comes news of another of those extraordinary adventures whereby our men have been puzzling, even rome. i>f those who know them longest. Yesterday (Saturday) mnrni-cr on rn-t of the line on the edge of Villers Bvctonneux plateau one of our posts had bf harrying the German post opposite with rifle grenades. After this was finished ' one man volunteered to go out and see what damage had been dime. Ho crept out. but when he war: w : thin a «Imrt distance the sentry smv him. end the maehine-(run fired. The Australian dropped into a, shell hole, and presently tho Gorman sentry threw »> bnvh -The Australian shot him dead ;ind (hen stood up, bomb in lipnd, with (he pin drawn, and threatened to throw it into the post unl'"s= the post s-'r-f-ilered. The post consisted of one German officer and 12 mm. They surrrni>"ed to this single Australian, who brought them in.

carao. Wo knew you would figlit " ' fight, .but we dirt not know 11 ml fn>;n the very beginning you ivou!<l a. tomish a, whole continent bv your valour. I havo lvre for the p-trposo of. seeinc tlif Australians. and (idling them this. I tun going buck I o niorrow to to nr' countrymen- 'T i.-i n SGC!n the A'■ "t'alinns. T lfoUc.l i: t • their faces. T Vno.iv tjiev >rn n<"" wl.n, having fought great battles ill the cause of f -""dom in fi" will fight alongside n- till th" r->u«e of freedom for wliieh we are nil lighting is guaranteed by ua and our children.' "