CAPTURE OF HAMEL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1858, 30 July 1918, Page 1

CAPTURE OF HAMEL.

DETAILS OF THE FIGHTING. AUSTRALIANS’ NEW COMRADES. July 7. Details of the lighting by which Hamel was captured are in many cases intensely interesting. When our barrage came down and the infantry advanced in the grey morning light towards Hamel, the wind continually carried a drifting mist from the smoke barrage across the front. This made the dawn far darker than it otherwise would have been. The Australians, many of whom had followed a barrage like this many times before, could often only tell where the barrage was by seeing their own shrapnel shells bursting overhead. The American infantry, who bad not seen or heard shell (ire before, placidly faced the extraordinary difficulty of knowing where they were by keeping an eye on the Australians. At the beginning of the light one American platoon, for example, was pushing straight on into our barrage. An Australian company commander I saw this, and pulled it back. Next time, when the barrage started, he noticed that this platoon had not moved 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 halfminute,” he said. The Americans were up at once hurrying after it. The men of the two forces worked shoulder to shoulder wherever the lighting was thick. An Australian Lewis-gunner was facing a German machine-gun team will) his gun at his hip when an American sergeant dashed out and bayoneted three. An Australian, ■ with two Americans who spoke German, was detailed to search for dug-outs. Working by themselves immediately, after the attacking troops passed they found a dag-out which they realised was important. The Americans called down the entrance, and a battalion commander, three other officers, and 23 men surrendered. Many of the Americans are si ill .wearing (he colours of the Australian battalions to which they were' attached. Many others who should not have been in this light bid themselves successfully when ordered to go out. Indeed, Americans lost their lives lighting beside the Australians in Hamel who by rights should have been many miles away. Never was firmer friendship •ever scah'd than on this balllelield. One American platoon went in under an Australian officer. When lie was bit it went on under the guidance of his runner, who had had. experience on other bat I lelields.

GERMANS USE ANTI-TANK RIELES. Three Hines in one corner of (his light one heard of privates plaving the part of officers. One company commander, in the dense smoke drifting through Hamel Wood, lost touch with his main body. Later ho found it again. It had gone on exactly as planned, swung round the (Ilink of Hie village, (hen struck in along the cross road, and proceeded to mop up dug-outs til! its programme was linished to I Ik* Idler. In Hie same part of the light an Australian private found himself isolated except for a few scattered men belonging to other companies. Fie immediately organised a party of 10, and cleared the dug-outs in Hie village. They captured one German officer and 20 men, and sent them off to the rear under escort. At the opposite corner of the village an Australian corporal found in a house which was burning from shell fire a dump of rifle and ammunition 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 4th. The corporal saved from the house 73,000 rounds of ammunition and some bombs. The Germans tired on the tanks with a special giant rifle. “Just the sort of thing one would expect a German anti-tank rifle to be,” one officer told us. But the whole battalion of tanks only had 12 men wounded. The tanks constantly rubbed out machine-gun posts, where the Germans did nut wait for their approach. STORIES OF INDIVIDUAL VALOUR. The Australian infantry behaved precisely as Australians might know (hey would behave. Here is one last example. As the line swept on past an awkward point, known as Pear trench, machine-guns opened from ahead, and a platoon commander was killed. In the advancing wave one big, quiet, slow-moving, slowspeaking South Australian caught from the corner of his eye the dim forms of about a dozen heads and shoulders behind a bank, perhaps < 70 yards away. From the top of the

bank came the Hash of machine-gun fire. The youngster immediately made towards these Germans. When he got within 50 yards, a German oilicer in the party tired on him with a revolver, but missed. The Australian tired a Lewis gun from his hip, and killed every German in the party except one. The remaining man made a rush at. him. The Australian, whose magazine was now empty, hit the German over the head with the butt end of a revolver, and then shot him. There were 12 German soldiers and one officer in that party. Later to-day comes the news of another of those extraordinary adventures whereby our men have been puzzling even some of those who have known them longest. Yesterday morning on part of the line on the edge of the Villers Brettonneaux plateua one of our posts had been harrying a German post opposite with rifle grenades. After this was finished one man volunteered to go out and see what damage had been done. He crept out, but when with:n a short distance a sentry saw him, and a machine-gun fired on him. The Australian dropped into t shell-hole. Presently the German -entry threw a bomb. The Australian shot him dead. He then stood up, bomb in hand, and threatened to throw it into the post unless the post surrendered. The post consisted of one German officer and 12 men. They surrendered, and the single Australian brought them in. Almost exactly the same thing hapoened at another German post during the afternoon. Hoodless to say, the German version of the Hamel fight is completely false. All our objectives were gained cheaply.