AUSTRALIA'S ARMY

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 112, 8 November 1917, Page 2

AUSTRALIA'S ARMY

ITS FIGHTING RECORD SUMMARY OF ACHIEVEMENTS. BRITISH HEADQUARTERS, 27th October. Now that the whole of the Australian force in France has been-in battle together, with the .First and Second Anzac Corps fighing beside one another for the first time since their formation, it is at last possible to give Australians some idea, of the record of the magnificent divisions which they are maintaining oversea (writes the official reporter with the A.1.F.). THE FIRST DIVISION. The Fir3t Australian Division has to its credit a list of battles of which the oldest army in the world would be proud. It is so well known to Australians that it scarcely needs to be mentioned. It includes the landing at Anzac, the Lone Pine fight, the evacuation; the taking of Pozieres and the fight through the village; the winter on the Somme; the advance through Le Barque and Thilloy, Boursies, Demicourt, and Hermies; the repulse of the Germans at Lagiii court; the heavy trench fighting near Bullecourt, and the latter stage of the taking of the Hindeaburg line, ending with the battles on the Menin-road and at Broodseinde, which were the most successful ever fought by Australians. CAPTORS OF HINDENBURG LINE. The Second Division began its famous career in the heavy fighting of the Fifth Brigade at Hill 60, on Gallipoli. Later it held Lone Pine and Quinn's Neck, provided the rear party at the. evacuation, and fought the terribly-wearing second and third battles on. the ridge behind Pozieries, when perhaps it had been longer in the battle line than almost any other unit on the Somme. It fought in November the battle near Wallencourt, faced out the Somme winter, beat the Germans in the spring at Malt Trench, Bapaume, Lagnicourt, and Noreuil, helped to beat back the German attack through Lagnicourt, charged and took the Hindenburg line on 3rd May,, and finally, with sister divisions, dealt the Germans three heavy blows at the Meninroad and Broodseinde. GREATEST AUSTRALIAN ADVANCE. The Third Australian Division, which is the youngest, has already built up and 1 carved out for itself a magnificent hisj tory. After a continuous period in tho trenches during the winter, it went into battle at Messines, and carried out its task with absolute perfection, doing digging both there and in the latest battle line, which British officers have told me was a model of battle work. This division had sharp fighting around the windmill on the first day of the great battle ] of Ypres. First it took the windmill; then it was driven out, but again it took the mill. It came into the great battle later, when sister divisions entered, and | fought beside them near Broodseinde' and J Passchendaele, making the biggest ad- I vance which has been undertaken by any Australians. The Third Australian'Divij sion has long since been accepted as I one of the finest divisions in the force. FOREMOST IN HARD FIGHTING. The Fourth Australian Division in some -ways has undertaken the hardest fighting of all!' The Fourth Brigade was at the Anzac landing, and for five weeks afterwards held Quinn's and Courtney's posts, the key to the whole Anzac position, against ithe hardest and most continuous trench fighting that Australians ever carried through. This brigade car.-, ried out tremendous night fighting on the far northern slopes of Sari Bail-. It afterwards attacked three times Hill 60. ajid took part in the evacuation. Other brigades of thus division also descended from those who fought at Anzac. S On reaching France the Fourth Divi- j sion carried out the greater part of the ! fighting which reached Mouquet Farm, besides enduring its share of the hellish j fire which preceded the German counter- ] attack at Pozieres. It took part in the I Somme -winter fighting and the attacks which ended it. It'took Noreuil. Then, on Hth April, it was thrown in against the (tremendously strong wire defences of j the Hindenburg line, in order to turn ! the flank of fee Germans fighting in the battle of Arras. The division was -without artillery, and though the tanks failed it carried two Hindenburg trenches, and was only driven out when hopelessly CUt off. ; • Passing through the New Zealanders. who had taken Messinee, the 4th Division held, with the 3rd Division, half the battle lines at Messines for four days of hard fighting. It shared, with sister divisions, the battles on the Polygon and Broodseinde ridges. KAISER'S "COCKCHAFERS" REPULSED. The sth Australian Division was similarly formed from some of the oldest brigades which landed on Gallipoli. 'Che latest brigade in it reached Egypt while the troops were still on the peninsula. It was the first division sent into the heavy fighting in France, when three magnificent brigades charged across No Man's Land to the third German trench near Fromelles, four days before Pozieres, and held out there all night, the remnant returning only when recalled in the morning. The sth Division faced out the winter on the Somme, attacked the retreating Germans near Le Transloy, occupied Bapaume, took and held Beaumetz against-repeated attacks, and held the Hindenburg line against the Kaiser's '"Cockchafers."

In the Battle or Polygon Wood, where it fought beside others, the sth Division had to attack immediately after tho whole flank had been confused by a counter-attack, yet it carried out the assault with the flank completely "in the air," and finished it exactly as it was planned.

>"o army in the world contains five more magnificent units than those in this Australian force, which wae concentrated with the New Zealanders for the first time in the battle before Ypres.