THE FIGHTING ON THE SOMME

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 15 June 1917, Page 1

THE FIGHTING ON THE SOMME

An Australian trooper has sent the following interesting letter to his parents at Sydney:— , "Everything points to an early spring offensive, and I would like to live through it. There is going to be heavy slaughter—nothing surer—though we- will come out on top. America is coming over on our side; but Germany says 'Let them all come,' and 1 don't hesitate one moment in saying .that she is quite prepared to meet us, and •will put up a big fight yet. From this out it will be a scientific fight on Germany's part. In fact, it has always been *o with Germany. If we could only get them out, and get at them, a different tale would be told. Whenever we have met them man to man we have come out on top every s time. Some of their regiments are good fighters, such as the Prussian" Guards; but even they got trounced the day they met the Black Watch, the famous Scottish regiment, in No Man's Land. Two regiments of the Black Watch left their trenches, and the Prussian Guards met them ; but the Scots chopped the Germans to pieces. '' On another occasion 20 Prussian Guards charged a whole battalion of Australians. Needless to say how .they fared;""but it shows they cjtn fight, and when one meets « Prussian Guard he has no 'mug' to deal *ith. However, there is very little hand-to-hand fighting now. The artillery smash things about, and then the infantry go OTer and clean up. The worst of all is holding a position after taking it. Every gun is trained on us fTom the enemy, and that is how we get so many casualties; but, of course, we get a lot going across also. In the early stages of the Somme offensive the Germans had deep wells, dug the same as any ordinary well. In these machine guns were fixed, so that they cotdd bt lowered whenever a bombardment was on, and when the bombardment lifted, and the infantry were sent acro.<s. the machine guns were brought to bear on us. These wells can be seen ,anywhere on the Somme now. "Other things that stick to the enemy sure his huge dug-outs. One day I went down one m the village of Fleurs. The steps were lined with German dead. A lot of these dug-outs have been cleaned out, and we are now using them ourselves. The Germans are hard workers, as they dig these big dug-outs in quick time. On one occasion the ' Tommies' lost a short line of trench. In seven days they recaptured it, and found in that short time several huge dug-outs had been-put down. "When we start our. next offensive wo are supposed to have a big fleet of 'tanks' to help us—a big improvement, I guess, on those that " were first sent out ; not so much, perhaps, in the mechanism of them. but the armored plate will be so much, thicker. A direct hit would put the old ones out of action; but one can safcly vager the Germans will have something to cope with in our tanks. " Onr air service is wonderful now. and we hold supremacy there. There i 6 no i occasion, however, to go looking for 'stoush"' pver on the enemy's side, r.l- ---" though-1 admit a great many of the duels are fought in German .territory. Our arr tillery is now far superior to that of the 5 Germans. Our 18-pounder is a wonderful , gun. It is given the credit of being better [ than the French .75."