ANZACS IN BATTLE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 251, 16 February 1917, Page 3 (Supplement)

ANZACS IN BATTLE.

FRESH DRAFTS DO WELL. I (From Captain C. E. W. Bean, Australian Pivss Representative with .the Commonwealth Forces. — Copyright Liy the Crown.) British Headquarters, Fiance, December 11. A I air-sized shell recently arrived in a certain lront trench held by the Australians in Frame. .It exploded, ajid an Australian found himself struggling among some debris in No .Man's Land. He tried to haul hum;'!! clear, but ihe tumbled rubbish kept him down, and as o!t n as he was >/een to move, bullets whizzed past him lrom a green slope near by. The green slope ran like a low railway embankment along the other side of the unkempt paddock k twe- n illj trencher. It was the German front line. Finally, one of his mates, 1 am told, jumped over to his help, and dragged him clear. When he got in, lie asked to be put into the very next party that should ever visit the German trendies. He wanted to get his own back. He was one of the newest Australians. Tliat is exactly the sort of request that would have been made by the oldest ones. We have seen tho newest Australian dratt in France, and the verdict lrom first to last amongst those-who know them is "They will uo."' There is a certain amount of chaff thrown out by the oldest Australians at the latest ari ivals. The sort of Australians who used to talk about our

"Tiupot -Navy" labelled the Australians who rushed at the chance of adventure the moment the recruiting lists were opened, "the six-bob-a-day tourists." Well, "tiie " tourists" made a name iur Australia such as no other Australians can ever have the privilege to make. The next shipment were tlu

"Dinkums," the men wlio came over ou principle to fight lor Australia —tho icnl iair dinkuni Australians. After tlieni came the Super-Dinkums, and next the War Babies," and after them the "Chocolate Soldiers," th.on the "Hard Thinkers," who were pictured as thinking very hard before they came. And then the "Neutrals." ".We know they are not against the Allies," the others said; when came news of tho latest drafts still training steadily under peace conditions. "We suppose they are just neutral." There has always been some chaff thrown at the latest arrivals — and it is a mistake to think that there was never any feeling behind the chaff. I remember long ago at Anzac when a new draft was moving up past some of tho older troops, past men who wcro tlun with disease and overworn with heavy work, there was a cry of "You have come at last, have you!" flung in a ton;- of which the bitterness was unmistakable. There has always been a feeling amongst tho older troops that they have been holding the fort — hanging on for Australia's name until tlie others have time to come along and give tlioni a hand. There is a tendency to feel that men who are still at homo are getting all the limelightprobably live to reap most of the glory at the end of it all.

BITTEN FEELING VANISHES. If .so, there was never a feeling that melted so quickly the moment each WW draft arrived and was really tested. Tlio moment it goes into the whirl of a modern battle and acquits itself through a wild night as every Australian diaft has always done in its first fight, and always will do, every sign of that old feeling melts as if it had never existed, and the'new dratt finds its. If taken into the heart of the old force on the same terms as the oldest and proudest regiment there. Ag's ago, "prehistoric ages," the "Dinkums" became a title for men to l»o intensely proud of. Men who went through the first fortnight at Pozieres need never he ashamed to compare their experiences with those of any soldier in the world; for it is the literal truth that there was never in history a harder fought battle. The "Chocolae Soldiers" became veterans in one terrible struggle. The "War Babies' were old soldiers, almost before they cut their teeth. It is one of tlie pities of the censorship, but a necessary one, that the Australian public cannot know until the story of this is fully told at tlio- end of it, the famous Australian battalions which will most assuredly go down to history as household names'. And if there " are not battalions among the newest troops which will go down to history with some of the very best Australia'posses— then I am a German. They have had a wonderful training of late —a training which can only be compared in thoroughness with that of Mena Camp in Egypt,-where o'.ir fir>t troops trained, and with the full experience of this war to back it. The British authorities are equipping the new Australian drafts generously. The discipline of the Australians, once they come to understand their work, has' never given t-he slightest real anxiety to those responsible for them. Ihe newest men have just exactly the same straight, frank look and speech of those of every other batch tliat t have seen. If there is any difference between them first and last, I will be bound that it i? beyond the' keenest eye to detect :t. WOIIK FOR THE OFFICERS. Indeed, if there is any difference between one Australian infantry battalion and another, it is and has always T»een a matter of officers. A commander who can make all Jiis subordinates feel that they are pulling in the same boat's crew; that they are all swinging together, not only with their ownf but with every other battalion •uid bri":ide , who can make them look upon themselves as all helping >" the one hi" cause. not lighting ior themselves "or regiment, but for thfr same ■M-eat main object: who can make them report back the true situation at on«ve, however unfavourable, beuiusi it is the ~i,|v way in which they can help those above thcin t<> mend it: "ho can mai\o them !o; k upon the dili'icultv ol anoTiier b'unhcn ni-rcly as a chance I 'i 11eelv end fully acting it —a commander who call do iocse tilings with his officers 4 -; in make a woiiderlul force ot !,is Australians, whether a battalion, •i bri"'ide, or a division It can .<•} Jli,no lieca use 1 have watched it being .Mid \> ond' red at its pertection. | his mav sound ahstra't and vague, but it i- l< a! to such an extent that it the main reason of nil differences that exi -t between Australian units. Va"ue oi' no: vague, it is the ni<»»t important factor in building an Australian Army. . 'l'll.- lelnforeellieilts whlell the .Vlsiralian loices have been g-tting and ~v siili getting liive their v.duc to move. Having seen tliein in their camps ■ nil in the line. I do not believe that a penn'orth of difference exist-, between ihe men. Australian units ha\e. Hue the Sots. a wonderful confidence <n oth.r. Tliev have been found to fi'.rht bv the side of grand regiments and divisions; but 1 tancy they would ! rather fifht beside other Australians ; o'" N"w V. a'anders than beside the I most famous units in the world. Chai-1-ng ap ir f . t■' a t is the leelmr of the old•-t unit- towards the m witit.