ASTRIDE THE WODAN LINE

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 19 May 1917, Page 6

ASTRIDE THE WODAN LINE

AUSTRALIA* ATTACK.

INFANTRY FIGHT IN INFERNO

A description of the manner in which the attack against the Hindenburg Line on May 3rd was delivered by the Australians has been telegraphed to the Sydney Sun by Mr. Keith Murdoch, -who is visiting the Western front. The ■battle in which the Australians were engaged on Thursday. May 3rd, was the greatest so far of the series of huge \ battles which the British armies have forced upon the Germans in this campaign, Mr. Murdoch says. The Australians’ part in the struggle was on the' front in the neighbourhood of Queant, on which only a few brigades could be employed. Veteran brigades from. Victoria and New South Vales were principally concerned. All fought a strongly-contested action with great gallantry and success. I stood for an hour before dawn on a commanding position some distance behind our forward line, which here consisted of a series of strong posts. Suddenly the shriek of the guns arose. Fast-fleeting and instantly recurring flashes set the countryside for 30 miles dancing with light, as though a raging tempest of flaming metal covered the earth. This tremendous barrage, which never wavered for hours, though it changed according to time-table, uas a signal for the infantry attack. We knew that in the dark, dusty inferno beneath our men were advancing. They found the extraordinarily wide and stout entanglements of the Hindenburg Line' cut to shreds, but immediately they encountered the strongest enemy barrage met since Poziercs. While dawn came our men fought their way steadily with bomb and bayonet through the enemy lines, gaining objective after, objective, with the exception of sijme delay on the right. A truly Australian sun, red through smoke and dust, rose over them.

f ‘The first lines of walking wounded men toiled uphill to the dressing stations. Soon also the first batch of German prisoners appeared; —shaken, bruised, and white. The Germans needed all their artillery for. their barrages, but after sunrise they began sprinkling the whole plateau with heavy shells. This shelling, though continued throughout the dav, was extraordinarily ineffective, while our barrages remained true, winning warm praise from the infantry. We knocked out many guns with direct hits, according to the reports from aeroplanes, which flew high and low with great gallantry. One British aviator flew .slowly for 90 minutes a height of a few hundred feet, backwards and forwards over Bullecourt and over the Australian left, though constantly peppered. The youngster was wounded, but he insisted on being carried to Auzae headquarters, where he made his report before being taken to hospital. Ko German aeroplane vas seen throughout the morning.

It was a day of many stern, heroic incidents. Perhaps the most notable was that of an officer of a New South Wales battalion, who, seeing another ■battalion temporarily without a leader and in difficulties, went to it under very heavy fire, rallied it, and led it forward.

Owing to the thick dust wc could sec nothing of the infantry fighting except he British attacks, and later one Australian attack. Whilst this strong has tion was being reduced our left was temporarily withdrawn from the farthermost point reached, but it is reported as being comfortably astride the Hindenburg Line. Our men fought heroically, with supreme endurance. The wounded reported that the German trenches were full of dead. Certainly the accuracy and extent of our artillery fire was unique In the history of the Australian force. One of the most stirring sights was the slow steadiness with which fullyequipped reserves advanced over fields ablaze under German shells. .