A DIFFICULT ATTACK

Evening Post, Volume XCII, Issue 58, 6 September 1916, Page 7

A DIFFICULT ATTACK

MACHINE-GUN FIRE FROM ALL SIDES. (Received September 6, 9 a.m.) LONDON, sth September. Mr. Philip Gibbs writes: "One of the most valuable factors in the British ad-, vance on Sunday was the Anzac attack on Mouquet Farm. The men knew the ground intimately, having already explored' the ruins of the farm by a strong patrol some days ago, and were confident that they could do the same thing again, though the sito might be difficult to hold against hostile fire. •'There was nowhere level ground; shell-holes were everywhere, some full of water and mud into which the men plunged up to their armpits, and many were bogged. There were really no trenches to be taken, the Germans merely holding lines of shell craters in which there were machine guns. The enemy was scattered in isolated groups with stores of bombs.

"It was extraordinarily difficult to attack such a position, because there was no definite line. The Australians encountered horrible spasms of machinegun fire from unknown quarters on both sides and even from behind. By the time the farm was reached the battle had broken into many separate encounters between small parties, of Australians and Prussians.

■ "Despite the bugger-mugger fighting the Australians pushed forward, and advanced parties entered the farm and got 200 yards beyond it. Though nothing remains of the farm higher than a man, the enemy had the usual dug-outs and tunnels strongly protected with timber and cement."