THE AUSTRALIANS.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 May 1917, Page 6

THE AUSTRALIANS.

TABLES TURNED ON TOE. . GERMAN" GUARDS UTTERLY ©ROKEX. The following cable message from Mr. C. E. W. Bean appear in the Australian journals:— April 17. About dawn yesterday the Germans attempted the biggest and one of the boldest raids yet known in this war against the Australian troops opposite tliem. The 3rd Guard division was specially brought up and squeezed into the German front near Qaeant (west of Cambrai), and then the troops of two Guar.'! divisions and another division besides attacked. Men from sixteen difl'erent battalions are amongst the prisoners in Australian hands. This German force came suddenly out against the advanced posts of the Australians, with instructions to cut them out, pusli through to the guns, seize the village of Noreuil, hold it for twentyfour hours till the guns had been destroyed by special parties, to ransack headquarters for papers, and then withdraw. This large picked force by sheer weight surrounded! several advanced posts, and, though driven off elsewhere, 'broke through the village of iLagnicourt and reached some of the more advanced field guns. The gun crews dismantled these guns in order to prevent their immediate use toy the Germans. The Germans were in the process of placing charges under some of the guns when local commander®, without waiting for orders, counter-attacked. Australian infantry— Queensland and New South Wales troops—advanced magniflcentlj'|, and swept the Guardsmen before them. By eight o'clock the Germans were retreating by hundreds, utterly broken, and the Australians were enjoying such shooting as they had never [had before against the Germans. Supi porting troops were standing up watching, as if it were a football match. In the height of the retreat two Australians ran out from the if est to collect seventy prisoners. These two never thought to take rifles with them, and their only weapon was a book. One platoon of Germans was marched in fours with hands up. By the middle of the morning all of our guns had not only been recaptured, but, with the exception of live, were all firing on the. Germans, who had retreated as best they could through gaps in their own wire entanglements, while our great guns laid down on them such a barrage as has seldom before been seen. 'Four hundred prisoners remain in our hands, while the German dead lie scattered across miles of country. I have been round to our guns. The Germans blew up four, broke the wheel of a fifth, and left all the others absolutely undamaged, though in some cases charges had been laid ready, 'but there had not been time to explode them.

The Germans for some reason are intensely anxious to aft'eot opinion in Australia'at this juncture. Any letter such as we all wrote (luring the Somme •wintefl. when the mud was at its worst, is eagerly seized on if found on dead men or prisoners, and is published in order to make it appear that the Australians are anxious to desert the Allies. The "killer of babies" is again expressing his clumsy sympathy with Australians. The Germans we capture are losing hope. Almost their sole hope now is the submarine campaign and these persisting attempts to cause disunion among us.

•THE LAGX-ICOURT AFFAIR BRILLIANT AUSTRALIAN DEEDS. April 10. The Germans officially claim that in the recent attack on tlio Australian outposts they captured 475 prisoners anil took and destroyed twenty-two guns. I myself saw seventeen of the guns which the Germans claim to have destroyed, and which were entirely untouched and in action, or ready for action, by eight o'clock on the morning of the attack. But I have waited until tlie facts were perfectly definitely ascertained before attempting to give the full story of this day's battle.

"The Germans believed that the Australian line \xas very weakly held. They themselves had just brought down the Third Guard Division to this part of the line, in order to buttress it against any attempts by us to break through, as the Australians had succeeded in doing for a. few hours in the brilliant attacks of April 11. Having these extra troops on . the spot, and "believing our line to 'be weak, some chief of the great German ■Stall' was struck 'by a brain-wave. 'Why should not wo hit back suddenly here, destroy fifty or sixty guns, and give the German people something to cheer it up as an offset to the Arra3 defeat when they opei> the newspapers next morning?' •'A great many of the German, prisoners said afterwards that they were sure this was why the attack was made. Accordingly, about dawn on April 15 they threw troops from four divisions against our Australian outpost line. We have prisoners or dead from eighteen German battalions in our possession, and from about sixty-livo companies. 'Placing the companies at only half strength, this means that SOOO bayonets attacked. These included the Guard Fusilier Regiment and the Lolir Regiment, which changes guard outside the Raiser's palace at Potsdan|. and which has been christened by the Kaiser as 'My cockchafers.' "Along most of the line our outposts and imm n, Mate supports shattered this attack wif machine-gun fire. In front of Lajyiid \ however, a couple of outposts wert ishecl, and those on either side were": Utack, though still holding, and a Itfr "of German Guardsmen pushed thrr • These troops reached a group o .vanced giuis, and had a number c* Jns in their possession for an hour *.nl a half. They were unable to use them, as the}" had been dismantled toy tlie gunners. A magnificent counter-attack by Queenslanders and New South Wales men swept across the country, and caught the Germans with only five guns destroyed. "There was such a rout as the Australians had nob seen since May 1!) in our flanking outposts si,ill held, though taken in the rear, the Gorman's had to retreat through a bottleneck. There followed what may be described as a comic opera battle. The guns were firing directly over the sights. Even batmen, signallers, and cooks blazed at ths fleeing enemy. It was thus that the Second Guard Reserve Division.raced : back to its own lines, with, our heavy artillery playing on the gaps in the (? Germans? wire, through which they bad Jfo (One hundred' sad' n&ety nt*

| from our outposts are missing. They jmay lie prisoners. We have 400 German prisoners., and from the number of dead their casualties must reach several thousands. AUSTRALIANS AT THEIR BEST. REVEL IN GREAT OFFENSIVE. "WE HAVE GOT FRITZ BEATEN." An Australian artillery officer gives a vivid description of the lively fighting on the West front, in which the Afastralians are revelling. ''Our boys," he declares, "were, never in better fettle. 'The staii' has always realised that the Australians were at their best in an offensive. Lagnieourt, south-west of Cambrai, was a memorable day. Although the Australians suffered heavily under the first German attack, which was delivered with unprecedented pressure, they got their own back when they advanced under the artillery fire The crowning moment for the Australians was when they cut off the Prussians and shot them down point-blank. Later, a notice was put up over the Australian positions, reading: "We are ready for tlie rest of the Guards. S'end them along.' ■But the Germans did not respond to the invitation. "The Australian howitzers hardly had time to cool during these last stunts. A gun firing five shots per minute was continuously at work for nine hours during the hottest period of the fighting. The German artillery was demoralised. and replied but feebly. "All former British bombardments were as nothing compared with the present. iYou never heard the report of a single gun—only a constant roar, which gets on one's nerves; but we would not miss the fighting in these days. We .have got Fritz .beaten, and lie knows it. Our prisoners are mere wrecks, and the only feeling they are capable of is relief that their horrible ordeal is over."