THE AUSTRALIANS.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 May 1917, Page 3

THE AUSTRALIANS.

WEDGE'iN HINDEXBURG USE. STR. 1) HAIG'S CCTSTGR A.TULATIOXS

CaMinor from British Headquarters on May slr. C. E. \V. Bean, official correspondent v.'ilh the Australian forces, snifl:—This morning at dawn, after a bombardment which extended around the whole horizon as far as the eye could see, the Australians, iogether with lines of British for mile upon mite to north of them, attacked the German battle front.. The fighting was tremendously fierce. The Germans saw the Australians by the light of flares just before the attack, and opened a bombardment of heavy shells on them before Dur bombardment started. Yet the troops took both the lines of the HinrU-nburg system facing them. The Victorians moved through without a set-back to a position well on the other side of the German line, and wert preparing to advance further when they were ordered bad-: to the Hindc-nbnrg line, owing to the general situation along the battle front. The New South Wales men were partially checked at first, but they took the Hir.denburg trenches with their second attack, and g'ldually fought and bombed their way to tluir objective along them, the fight being taken up towards the end of the morning by the West. Australians and others. The weithev has been dry and fine, and tremendous clouds of dust an:! smoke made the details of the battle almost impossible to see. Enough was known, however, to chow that the infantry had done magnificent work, supported by esertici'-i such as tho Australian aitillery had r.~-ver before been called on to undertake.

WORK OF THE RED CROSS MEN. As for those Australian stretcherbearers—l can only say that I saw ihroo shells burst within four yards of a group of them who were engaged in hading wounded from the open ground into a waggon. They did not even turn to look. The sole idea of both those men, and of the officer superintending, clearly was to work all the more, in order to gejt the whole cluster of wounded men who were lying there into ambulances before the inevitable salvo oi shells should come along and kill them. Bv great fortune (hey succeeded. Most of the wounded men appeared to me to come out of this fight in good heart, knowing that they and their battalion.'! had done well. They are still holding their place in the Hindenburg lin;>. though a heavy counter-attack is certain.

Cabling on May 4, Mr. Bean says:— 'flic Australians are still in possession of that part of the Hindenburg line which they won yesterday. This is practically the same portion as they attacked and took on Aipril 11, when they assaulted it without a. bombardment. Last night, shortly after dark,'tlw Germans came out from Queant and Bullecourt, both of which are in the rear of this extraordinary position, and simultaneously attacked the front. This attack utterly failed. There has been constant bomb fighting up and down the trenches 011 t.'ie flanks.

A later message under the same dale was as follows:—-This afternoon the Australians, who seized the Hindenburg linr between Bullecourt and Hiencourl. not merely held 011 against all attack? but extended their gains by bombing dpvn £OO yards of trenches. From 3.30 p.m. dusty bursts of bombs advancc-d steadily down the Hindenburg parapet. Agtiin and again the barrage of German heavy shell fire laid down a curtain of dust right across the scene, but as it cleared away the botab bursts were still there a little further down the trench. l)usk found them still bombing away at tiie end of a new trench. I know of no battle in which the Australian soldiers have shown out better, and none from which the wounded came in so confident and cheerful. SCOTCH TROOPS JOIN HANDS.

Cibling on the afternoon of May 7, l'r. Bean wrote:—Last night the Scottish troops fighting on the flank of the Australians bombed down towards them, and the Scots joined hands. The extraordinary position to which the Australians have been holding on for four davs and nights in the heart of the Gerpun line has, therefore, been much simplified The nature of the lighting may b; judged from a message received from the Commander-in-Chief this morning, iu wh'ch lie congratulates the Anzaes on the fine work they have done and are doing. He adds that the capture of the Hindenburg line oast of Bullecourt and the gallant manner in which it lias been .held by the Australians and the troops associated with them, against such constant and desperate efforts to retake it, will rank high among the great deeds of the war,"that it is helping very appreciably in wearing out the enemy, and that the fine iriitiative'shown by all commanders down to ; the lowest is admirI able.