FRENCH PRAISE ANZACS.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 August 1916, Page 6

FRENCH PRAISE ANZACS.

REPUTATION CONFIRMED! ACHIEVEMENTS AT POZIERES London, August 18. A Paris semi-official message highly praises the Anzaes. "After participation in the memorable Dardanelles fighting," it says, "tlicy were anxious for their debut on the .vestc-rn front. They realised their wish to capture Pozieres. What they accomplished there confirms their reputation for courage, and shows that the martial spirit is animating tlie«e young troops who have come overseas to fight the battle against German Imperialism "A great spirit of camaraderie prevails among the Anzaes. I visited tjieir positions, and saw how the officers an<J soldiers of these splendid troops fraternise on the battlefield, inspiring each other with mutual confidence. "Their moral standard equals their physical vigor, .which is saying much. It is because they-represent fiiiely-balanccd minds and bodies that they have resolved to beat down the Germans, whom they regard as the enemy of civilisation and humanity.'' Reuter's correspondent at headquarters on the western front relates how, at 'Foaeres, 500 Prussians resolved tc cross 200 yards to trenches which had not yet been linked up, and cut off the 80 Australians defending the position. The latter waited till the Germans were almost through; then, mounting tho parapet, and standing astride, fired' with such effect that the only surviving Bodies were taken prisoner. On another occasion a gunner ran out of ammunition, but, assisted by three infantrymen, bluffed 30 of the cnemv

llartdeulling six captured Anzacs, tlio enemy used them to screen their advance. The Australians manoeuvred to defeat this move. Finally the prisoners managed to bolt towards safety, shouting, "Let 'em have it, boys; never mind, us!" The Bodies were immediately crumpled lip. Troops who gained the slope leading down into Bapaume (writes Mr. Beadi Thomas, Daily 'Mail correspondent in France), saw the most wonderful sight. Star-shells and rockets continually lit the battlefield, revealing the German gunners at close rango, and gun teams furiously galloping, witli innumerable shells bursting about them. Four hundred Germans, about tc surrender, were caught in the fire from their own "side and wiped out. Our troops penetrated .successive curtains of fire. After the battle they expressed their contempt for the German soldiers, and are convinced that it was merely pure- machinery which was holding them off General Birdwood, in the course of a letter to Commissioner Budden, of the ■Australian Comforts Fund, says:—"Our boys have been going through a lot of terribly hard fighting during the past three weeks, and they have done simply magnificently. No words can half express my feelings for their • lourage and determination in sticking i.t out, as they had day after day to face the most tremendously heavy bombardments. "We have not only captured Pozieres, but, going further on, have taken mudh more diflicult high ground above and beyond the town, whereon were the main German trendies. We have taken a lot of prisoners, and, I fancy, have killed a large number of Germans. But lam sorry to say that, as was inevitable, our casualties have also been heavy—not in taking the trenches, but in holding them afterwards, because it is extremely difficult to provide cover against the heavy guns." The Daily News correspondent at the Western front headquarters gives instances of the Australians' great personal superiority as fighters over the Germans. They always win in an equal ■light.on open ground. The German infantry now fears to meet them. A battalion commander declared that 4000 Germans were recently engaged in an attack against the Ahzaos and none returned. These troops will even bold captured positions under a hidden enfilading fire from a hundred batteries, but the cost compels' the realisation of the impotence of the most matchless human valor against artillery. It makes one I curse that there should be' such inequality where the best should win.