ANZACS AT LAGNICOURT.
SOME ADDITIONAL DETAILS. London, April 27. Details of the battle of Lagnicourt show that it was one of the most sanguinary German repulses of the war. Tho Australians got all their heaviest ami other artillery going their hardest, while their rifles and machine-guns swept the German retreat, getting them in bundles whilst caught in their OWII wire. General Birdwood writes: "We have now identified eighteen battalions from Guards. Our patrols'.discovered on Tuesday a depression full of German dead, wiped out by the machine-gun and artillery fire. Officers say they have seen nothing like it since the rows of Turks were laid out at GallipoK in May, 191,"5. These additions bring the total counted enemy dead to near 3000." l<'ickl-Marshal Sir Douglas Haig has telegraphed: "My warm congratulations to tlio First Anzacs on the gallant and tuccessfulmanncr in which they defeated the sudden attacks when opposed to heavy odds." From other sources it is learned that Colonel Smith, of the Fifth Brigade (a Victorian) made the counter-attack, which he organised rapidly and skilfully. The principal fighting was done by the First, Third, and Fifth Brigades. The Australian casualties are a few hundred, principally sUghtlv wounded. Another letter from General Birdwood says: •"We are being very highly tried by the. woather, which is something awful —driving rain and cutting', cold winds. It is perfectly marvellous that my boys meet it all so cheerfully happy."
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Taranaki Daily News, 8 May 1917, Page 2
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235ANZACS AT LAGNICOURT. Taranaki Daily News, 8 May 1917, Page 2
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