NEAT WORK.

Taihape Daily Times, 14 August 1918, Page 5

NEAT WORK.

THE TAKING OP MERRIS. LONDON, 'August 3. When the Australian Division took Merris, the front posts of the South Australian Battalion, which carried out the attack, were actually placed in the dark amongst the German supports. Immediately after the first advance, a young officer, going between two posts, saw men moving in a hedge 50 yards from the flank. He knew they must be Germans, and he could also see the shape of their helmets. Someone from the hedge called out to him. He shouted back, telling them to surrender. They dropped in shell-holes and-threw a bomb. A revolver flashed from the hedge and one runner was wounded in the neck. This left three Australians. The officer and sergeantmajor went on to the next post and brought back a sergeant with a Lewis gun and one other man. The officer, sergeant-major, and the other man then attacked the hedge with bombs. Presently they heard groans, and, getting up, rushed the hedge. They found there 21 German soldiers, one wounded officer, and two machine guns. All were captured. Six Germans had been wounded by one bomb, which had rolled into their dugout. The Germans were completely fogged as to where the Australians were. The first Gorman who came running up from the road from Merris proved to ,be a runner carrying messages from the company commander" iii the town to the battalion commander. The niesage simply said: "The British have attacked the town. Situation obscure." A little later up the patn from the rear came a German officer walking along quietly, clearly strolling up the support line. The men saw that he did not realise the situation, so let him come. He walked straic}--.

on to a machine gun and surrendered immediately. The German officers have frequently fought very well in these 'recent struggles. One of them lately, in a fight in a trench when his men refused to come on, jumped up on the parapet and come on, waving his hand. Y/hen they still hesitated, he picked up a rifle and coolly shot down three out of the four Australian infantrymen who were manning a barricade across the trench before he himself was killed, shot through the neck. The German officer ,who was wounded in the post in the hedge above-mentioned, behaved very bravely, and was well treated by the Australians. He was most painfully wounded, and, having asked for a drink, was then carried off to the rear holding by the hand his own soldier servant, who walked beside the stretcher,"