THE AUSTRALIANS.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 August 1916, Page 9

THE AUSTRALIANS.

BATTLEFIELD PICTURES.

(I'roni t'. E. W. Bean. Official Corn*poudent with the Australia]] Forces)

BRITISH HKADQUARTERS, Franco, July 23. I wont to tlu> I'ozieres bsxttlofleld this afternoon with ;i young Frencli officer. 1 wish people in Australia could have seen what, we saw. Up and down a certain wandering truck, far behind the battlefield, came a stream of traffic. Those going up tlie track were great, cheery, strong-faced fellows, with a trotting gun team, whose easy-limbed drivers looked as if the men were part of the horses. Down the same track came men limping, in two or threes, slowly. They were wounded, from the great battle, but tliey held themselves with a sort of stubborn erectness, which said a s plainly as in words "Let nobody pity me." Some were smoking, others quietly yarning over the events of the wild night before, but I saw scarcely a single man who looked the remotest degree sorry for himself. "I hope I'm not going to lose my fingers," said one youngster with a shattered hand. "I reckon I ought to be good for a number of the beggars yet. I can't be sure I got even one last night." But the sight which remains'in my mind was one which met us a good deal further on from the crest of a certain rise. As we reached the ridge, we found that the German shells, the crashes and splashing of which we had seen and heard long since, were bursting in one continuous, constant line across a certain stretch of valley and upland. The dust raised by the line of black geysers where 5.!) inch shells were striking, actually formed a curtain across the landscape, through which we could faintly see parts of the background, as you see a tableau through gauze. This was the German shell barrage, and it was put therif 'because it was known our working parties, reinforcements, and all the multifarious traffic of the trenches must pass through it. It was a terrific thing to look at. One would have been really scared, even watching it, had, one not seen that the traffic of the trenches went into and through it exactly as if it did not exist. Through that inferno came ordinary parties of bronzed, keen-eyed men, occassionally with a cheek bleeding from a cut by the flying earth. When a shell crashed near them, they rarely troubled to crouch. I saw very few even duck.

Later T saw elsewhere some of these men moving through a corner of scrub, which was suffering at the time a shelling almost as severe as that through which the Prussians were noticed walking the day before in Pozieres. I frankly confess it was a lesson to me in the way to treat shell fire. I have not seen anything quite the same since the early days on the beach at Gallipoli. Men walked through that death-strewn place with evidences of death fresh beside them, the du>t of debris from shell bursts whirling before and behind them. They walked through it exactly as if fHiing home to tea. Men usually! learn, their demeanour from their officers, but I must own myself I am not too proud to take a lesson in coolness from most Australian private soldiers. I doubt if the morale of these troops was ever as high as at this moment.

THE SECOND STAGE. That is tlie second stage of the fight for Pozieres as I saw it. In the hackground the further outskirts of the village were reeking with our shell lire. Our troops went further to-day. .Tust before dawn some section of the German garrison had put up some sort of coun-ter-attack. Poor fellows! I believe they were soldiers brought from fighting the Canadians at Hooge, and just that day relieved the Prussian Guard reserve. They jumped up on the parapet, a,nd came running over in a mass from a small section of the trench. ,: It was almost a shame to shoot. Our machine guns mowed them away." said one youngster. Our casualties are comparatively light up to tlie present for one of the severest battles the Australians ever yet fought. We found several more guns to-day destroyed by our artillery, and took about 100 prisoners, including a colonel. It is to be hoped that in the glamour of affairs on this more important battlefield the Australians will not forget the quite equal gallantry of the men who fell for the same cause a few days before at Armentieres. The British attack near Pozieres was very successful, and many prisoners were taken. STRETCHER-BEARERS PRAISED. Continuing his narrative on the 24th, Captain Bean cables:— The German shelling descended on Pozieres to-day more fiercely than before. They had some big guns concentrated on parts of the village, besides ma.-.y field guns. Heavy shells continually burst amidst shattered trees or in brick heaps, until the whole place from time to time was hidden by mist from great black and brick-red bursts. This

lias continued at intervals all day. Yet throrgh this inferno our troops steadily r,an-'ed on the day's duties, and much more besides. I know this to be no exaggeration, because I saw it myself. The cooks, engineers, pioneei-i, and water-carriers are all doing the'"- normal work as if tilings happening around them were mere street incidents. At one moment when the air was thick with flying fragments a call went for stretcher-bearers. The din continued with varying intensity. One had almost forgotten that call when a big Western Australian passed the mouth of the hole in which we were squatting. "Anyone ask for a stretcher-bearer?" he said. The Australian stretcher-bearers have a wonderful reputation to live up to. As far as I have seen, they are preserving it completely by the way they move through the heavy sliellfire of the German barrages. Shortly after the fighting began in the grey light yesterday morning, about 100 Germans were seen moving hurriedly through the trees to reinforce the garrison. These were newly-arrived troops, many of whom have since been killed or captured. Later two of our patrols pushing through the further edge of the village had a sharp fight with the Germans hastily arriving from positions further back. The troops are still working steadily forward, despite the bom'baMmcnt. One youngster from New .South Wales, working like a tiger, was buried, three times. He continued working ti'.l the third time, when he collapsed.

"1 doii't think 1 can manage it again," lie sajd. ( "MIGHT BE WORSE." Wi' watched the shell-swept area in ,o ci/rtain quarter yesterday. Someone mentioned that a certain regimental doqlor had placed his aid post in that part. It seemed to him he could be of (more use there than elsewhere, they saild. One knew quite certainly what th| end of that story must be, and to-pay I hear it happened. He was

seriously wounded by a shell. The wounded are surprisingly sturdy in their attitude. To-day I overtook a dejectedlooking corporal walking painfully back, and naked to the waist, in order to accommodate about half a dozen separate bandages, and wearing a. German shrapnel helmet on his head. "I might he worse," was all he said, when I asked him about it. '"\ou have got a. fine souvenir out of it, anvway," I said, looking up at the helmet. ''Some bloke put it there." he remarked. The attitude of most of these men is: "For God's sake, don't make us heroes. W"e can stand anything but that." We saw to-day in a hedge in front of I'ozieres sortie fair-sized German howitzers. The Hermans in Poziercs were fresh troops. They had brought in plenty of food with them, and told us many were killed by our bombardment, but there were lighter intervals during which they chanced it and moved to and from 'the trenches on fatigues.

POZ TERES BATTLE. FIERCE FIGHTING. WORK OF THE AUSTRALIANS. France, .Tuly 2(1. The battle around Pozieres still continues tremendously fierce. Even the German communique admits that. For' four days the Germans shelled the vitals out of the place. That reeking, fuming stretch in the wide, parched brown landscape was the sight of the battlefield. The German guns increased in number and size, and played day and night upon it. After two day's they threw in a counter-attack, twice in one day. They shelled two days more, and attacked twice again. Again \he attacks were broken. Then we. in our turn, attacked the German line beyond Pozieres. We threw in the bombers of New South \\ ales first, > the preliminary struggle. After a bomb-fight lasting many hours in the German trenches—in which our men fought like cricketers, standing their full height in the open and throwing for all they were worth—a portion of the. German trench was ours. The Germans still retained most of the second line trench,'behind the village, and the windmill on the summit beyond the village. Last night the Australians delivered an attack towards the east and north. The northern attack succeeded, and we still possess a good part of the ground Avon. The eastern attack, which was on a larger scale, was delivered after a short, sharp bombardment, But it was not a surprise. The Germans saw some indications of the assault being imminent. I myself, when waiting for the bombardment to begin, heard most clearly one machine-gun start and then another, and then rifle shots on the night air before our field guns broke in.

When the bombardment lifted, the enemy's shrapnel, rifles, and machineguns burst out again. The troops mostly went through the first trench, which in parts was a mere unrecognisable powdered ditch. Many reached the wire in front of the second trench, and some, I believe, entered the trench. I hese, however, were now not strong enough to hold either trench. Over most of the line we gained no ground. The end of the night's fierce fighting found our position slightly extended. The enemy lias now congregated formidable artillery on the Somine battlefield. The moment any attack commences, he. of course, switches on a barrage where he considers suitable. The manner in which anyone whose duty «•!•» faces this ordeal'would make Australians very proud if they could see it. Last night, as we waited for news from a certain quarter of the fight, where ordinary arrangements for "the moment had not worked, a message at last arrived by an orderly. An officer found the man .stumbling through the dark inquiring for headquarters. "What do you want." he was asked. "1 have a message for them," be said. It was then noticed that he was wounded. ''What is the matter?" he was asked.

I think I have lost one of my eyes." he said.

I he work of the orderlies, stretcherbearers, and working parties of engineers and pioneers is the wonder of the battlefield.