HOTTEST CORNER OF ADVANCE

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 120, 21 May 1917, Page 6

HOTTEST CORNER OF ADVANCE

THE ANTIPODES MEET. LONDON. May 12. Correspondents say that the Australians fought with the greatest dash and gallantry in the new advance, of which Bullecourt is the hottest centre. The. British artillery did deadly execution prior to the attack which gained the village, Australian and British troops capturing it after the most desperate and tho bloodiest street fighting. We have thus gained the most important bastion of the < iennan Eino .between Croisellcs and Queant. M. Marcel Hutin, writing in the "Echo de Paris." gives a vivid picture of the difficulties the Australians surmounted at Bullecourt. Prince Rupprccht did his utmost to hung on to the ruined village. The whole of his positions here formed a maze of almost. unapproachable trenches, bristling with fixed and mobile machine-guns, which were almost impossible to locate, enabling the defence to resist for nearly a fortnight. The C3pt«res are of important strategical value, and the Germans will tjacrifiee largo masses to regain them. Mr. Beach Thomas ("Daily Mail") writes i —

■ "The stiO". almost static, lighting of the past ten days broke on Friday evening into waves of attack, earning ns forward into many desired havens. We won all tile points assaulted with singularly light casualties. A wounded man returned from Bulleeourt with cracked and dried blood lining his face, but grinning with (lelignt over the penetration of the village. He was one of a unit which shared in as dramatic a moment, as the war has provided. His people were bombing towards the muchharassed Australians, who were also bombing towards them. They sighted the distinctive figures of the Australians, who. however, did not see them, but happily stopped their aggressive bombing owing fo the surprise of finding dead C.'crmaiis, who apparently had not been killed by them, in a trench. They were puzzled over the discovery, when an English trooper jumped on to the parapet with a good Knglish shout. Then both 'parties knew that a junction had been made. With ringing cheers the men ran out, and hands were shaken over the bodies of the enemy. The antipodes had meet indeed.