SOMME BATTLE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17279, 21 September 1916, Page 5

SOMME BATTLE.

WORK OF THE AUSTRALIANS. The following messages from Captain Bean, Official Correspondent with the Commonwealth Forces, appear in Australian journals:— September 4. At dawn yesterday [he Australians attacked Mouquet Farm and the ridge north-west of it. The Farm was taken at tho first rush, and tho lino swept two hundred yards beyond it, the troops on tlio right reaching the German trench on tho crest, from which they looked down over a wide stretch of country for miles behind- the German lines. The Australians lost theso trenches on the ridge for a moment, but retook them immediately. The fighting was very fierce. Mouquet Farm and the line opposite the Australians was manned by the First Prussian Guard Reserve Division. The Second Guard Reserve Regiment were in the dug-outs on the Farm. They defended the dug-outs by barricading the stairs and firing rifle grenades up the entrance. The whole of the garrison at tho Farm, however, was soon killed or capfiared, but our line, which had passed the Farm, was not continuous. North of the Farm thero existed a gap of several hundred yards. About nine o'clock the Germans appeared, pouring through this gap. A small party of Australians in the Farm, after holding on till a bare handful was left, were forced to retreat, leaving Mouquet Farm still uncaptured. The Australians, however, still hold the rest of tho captured trenches on tho ridge, reaching that portion of the crest well to the north-west of the Farm, for which they have received tlio congratulations of the Army Commander. September S. I do nob know if my' series of telegrams, spasmodically despatched, reporting a succession of heavy fights during fho past six weeks has made it clear what a very big battle tnc Australian troops have been fighting.. At least, it has been three or four times heavier than any battle the Australians have ever fought. For six weeks they have stood up against shell fire as heavy as any which was ever suffered by British troops—such, indeed, as very few troops of any country have experienced. It was a shell firo which has shorn tho natural covering off two miles of country in a way that I have never before seen, and left the two miles or hilltop held by them burned up literally like a newly ploughed field. Under these conditions they have pushed, and continue to push farther, a big salient into the heart of the enemy’s position. The non-com-batant services, ration parties, and digging parties worked in. tho face ot the enemy’s fire exactly as if they were called on to fight a big battle.