AT POZIERES.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 August 1916, Page 5

AT POZIERES.

CHARGE OP THE AUSTRALIANS. HOW THE POSITION j WKRE TAKEN. (Bj C. E. W. Bean, Official Correspond- . cnt with Australian Fortes). British Headquarters, France, July 22. 1 have just returned from watching , a great bombardment. In front of us, > some hundred yards away, was a linn of ragged, shell-stripped trees bchiiid , the remains of a battered hedge. Along , that hedge run the German trenches which defend the village of Pozieres. A few tumbled walls behind trees and a low sandhill of brick-red dust with a skeleton and broken roof nre all tnat can be seen of the village. To the left, beyond that ash heap is another small wood, probably once an orchard. Our line curves round to that orchard. To-night an Australian force will charge pvc-r this front in an attack which, I fancy, is a g,-eater test than Lone Pine, perhaps even greater tlmn the landing. In that village, as far as I know, are some of the cream of the German troops, a reserve division of Prussian Guards.. Huge shells have been tearing out the heart of Pozieres village for many days. This afternoon we watched pillar after ' pillar of pitch-black earth shot fifty ' feet into the air by great shells, which ' tore down from the lirmament with a ' hiss as if the sky were one huge canvas ' sheet and some giant were ripping it from zenith to horizon. After every explosion, within 300 yards of us, we lmd ' to duck behind the parapet to avoid the whirling metal from tlni back-blast. ' Shrapnel and high eyplosives bursting " into ttye brick heaps threw, up curtains ' of taiwnv dust. There was no difliculty 1 in holding up your head watching where ' you wished, because no man would ex- ' pose himself to shoot in those ruins un- '■ less to meet an actual onslaught.. Yet ; men who are observing there told me that yesterday they clearly saw small parties of Germans moving in those rents and running across the open ash heap from some necessary fatigue. The bombardment has not yet been intense, but there has been a continual, steady ■ shelling for days. > Our men in the trenches reminded me of many scenes at Anzac and Helles. 1 They go in great heart. "All water- > proofs to be collected and sent back to ■ the lump," a corporal was shouting. The men were cleaning rifles, reading • Australian papers and yarning. Some were boiling tea on little trench fires as in Galipoli, and many were getting what sleep they could. "Believe we are going to hop over to see Fritz- to-night," said one, looking up. They knew well the sort of a job ahead, for Pozieres, as an official communique has stated, has already been once attacked. "I do not know what sort of obstacles there will be. One could see a flat stretch covered with a low crop of grass and thistles, through which ran a railway built by the Germans to feed the trenches; then a broken hedge of lowshredded thicket, and lastly the remains of the village, along the old Roman road. France, July 23. After midnight, in a splendid night attack, the Australians took the greater portion of Pozieres. The attack was u complicated one, and was carried out :t< several stages. After several days of steady, slow bombardment, our artillery, shortly after dark, increased to a very heavy fire. Other sections were attacking besides the Australians, and the bombardment was spreail over a fairly large front. I never before had seen such a spectacle. A largo sector of the horizon was split up, not by single Hashes, lmt by a continuous band of quivering light. A mile away you could catch the sweet heliotrope, secnt of the tear-shells, with which the Germans replied to our batteries, and one passed through areas thick with heavy chloroform-scented gas from the gas-shells. Towards the end of the time the torrent of artillery fire was suddenly turned on to the lines in front of vilkce. and almost

immediately afterwards the Australian! wont over the parapet. The first trench across the wide stretch of grassy flatl was taken through German shrapnel ail if the pellets were rain drops. Even at this stage, in spite of all the bombard'' nient, machine guns were sweeping thfj ground. \ The first line consisted of a miser* able trench, much of it recently dug< A few live Germans were found in it« and thep were mostly cowed, The flra was coming from the further The line dropped into the first trenehj digging furiously, while our shrapnel continued to Tain overhead. Presently the lire was lifted still fnw ther, and the Australians swept on toi the second trench. This was very dlf-i fercnt, being deep and well built, but iB parts it was so smashed by the bombardment that some of the men havp told me they went past it not knowing itobo a trench at all. This line in general seems to have been just beyond the tramway which runs just under the , fringe of the village. In many parta of this line the Germans were fmy numerous. Theywere mostly bayoneted ■ or taken prisoners. The Australians again started rapidly tc- improve this trench, and after an* oilier' short interval swept onward through the small woods at the back ot the village itself. As they paaaed through the trees they saw against the the shell glare the outline of two heavily, ■ constructed mounds, which they recognised as gun emplacements. Beside ona gun could be seen the figures of fOUfl men shooting with rifles. These quickly were killed or wounded. The line swept past'the guns, which, when laetl I heard, were still in our hands. In order to understand what it is necessary to evplain that was a very strong point, just ia frontj. and forming part of the original Gen man second line. That line, consisted of two strong trenches running nearly north and south behind Pozieres, which! itself was almost surrounded by tha trenches. The British a week #«<oj captured the German second line sontbi of Pozieres almost up to the town, bub' meantime the Germans had built wbaft the Canadians called a switch line, run' ning across from the second line to tha third, just north of the British new positions. ' This line runs roughly front near Pozieres due east to Flers. Poxieres, therefore, forms practically tha angle of this new line with the old second line, but portion of the old second line still projects from the southeastern corner in possession of the Ger« This, though torn to pieces by* hellfire, is still strongly held by tha German, and the light of our attack' bends away, from the village to this point. The British troops who attacked aa the .same time against the running east from this point took portion of the switch, but were forced later, to withdraw. There were continual bomb encounters at the switch-line junction between Australians and Germans. That was the position at thij time when I left the battlefield. . The troops drove through the wild) night through shrapnel-shell, machine- 1 gun fire, and fought around difficult amies and through complicated stages, with extraordinary coolness and success They had a famous corps in front oil them, but these Australian troops ■howed a discipline and capacity for being controlled intelligently amidst awful surroundings of a night attack,' which onlp those who saw them in tight places in Gallipoli would have suspected. Australian officers sacrificed' themselves with sheer carelessness ofl anything but duty. the battle is still very fierce. The Australians will undoubtedly have taj withstand a tremendous shelling during) the day, and a quite certain counter-; attack. The shelling was fierce fromi the first and seemed to grow fiercer at' dawn. If any men could withstand 1 that trial, these troops will. The army commander haj already thanked for their "splendid" attack. As I left the scene, two over-attend-ant aeroplanes were flying most dan< : gerously lov through the morning wiata jii order to carry back to the authorities the iivtost. information from tha patch of shredded brushwood, on tha brown, sheli-scorehed uplands on whichi our boys are at this moment; making their great, steadfast sacrifice for theilj ideal of the world. ~ •