BY GUEDECOURT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16988, 26 April 1917, Page 6

BY GUEDECOURT.

A FIERCE AUSTRALIAN FIGHT. GERMANS' TRIAL OF STRENGTH. (Copyright Reserved by the Crown.) (From the Australian War Correspondent. C. E. W. Bean.)

British Headquarters, Franco, February 14-. There was a fight on the night of February 4, of which little had been written. A New South Wales battalion attacked, and took 1500 yurds oi trenches near Guedecourt. The story of it is of some of the most brilliant hand-to-hand fighting that Australians bavo engaged in. For it was not one of those fights in v.oicii the Germane have given in tameJy— on one flank he fought to the la3t ounce of ass strength, and fought for days. It was chi-jjiy U p Otl a s i n gi e company of Austraisa.ns that the actual figliting fell—but small bodies of men have often put up an historic struggle, and this e'eaerves to be one of ta»ai.

■to start off "with, the enemy's wiro; was known not to havo been cut out around wio apex of the email salient attacked. Acv?7 i üßy'u ßy ' fcho c . om P nn y °f New South Welshmen opposite that uncut wire was ordered to get into the German trench around the broken end, and then fight up tho trench to the point which it was intended to break. Sonic hours after dark tho Australian guns broke out in an intense bombardment. Everyone epeaks of it as a wonderfully good bombardment. The edge of it was as clear almost as a ruled ," , ~ ° Australian infantry climbed out and followed it. As a matter of fact, one small portion of the infantry was only just reaching tho jumping-off trench when the gnns broke out. The youn<j officer leading did not hesitate an instant. He knew that every detail of the attack had been explained to tho men so thoroughly that every man knew where to go and what to do; so he lod them stra:«ht over the top just 13 j ? T- oro - Thcro wcro a f«v hundred yards behind the rest at starting, but they were m no difficulty. They got into pos ; - <<"?? D ?t a £ tho star tiug point. 1 but out in No Mans Land," behind the bursts of their own shells, and they entered tho enemy s trenches exactly as if they had started aearranged. When the discipline of Australian troops is to be proved ono'e mind flies back to at least a dozen small incidents like that—and to some big ones which do not differ in the least. Tiie line got into the German trench, as tho Germans havo said before, '' not behind the bombardment, but with it. The Germans on the greater part of the position surrendered like lambs, and made no secret of their relief at being captured. But when the _ flanking company had to swerve to avoid the jsnre tliey met with a surprisingly different kind of Boche. I do not know whether it was for some reason a bettor class of private. But he fought in that trftnch as Germans havo seldom met us in France.

Tho flanking- company leapt into tho German trench just about as tho leading Germans tumbling up out of .the mouths of their dug-outs. Tho company commander, a lasmaniati, who had previously had to handlo n lons., difficult flight in front of Moquot Farm, himself captured three. The bombers of the company—the men upon whom all t.ho hand-to-hand fighting of Homeric style in cvory modern battle falls —started at once to fight up the trench towards the point which they should have reached had the wiro not prevented it. It was too slow for all to keep to the v trenchmen rushed along tho parapet and up "No Man 6 Land." As they went the Germans in the trench ahead of them had more and more time to get ready to meet them and for once they did so with real heart. Germans camo tumbling up out of their dug-outs, running straight into the thick of tho fight. And within a few minutes the Australians entering tho trench there were enough Germans < rganised ahead to make a determined stand. Some small organisatron of the German bombers, possibly nine or 10, rushed into it. Their counter-attack was finished by the whole section being completely wiped out by our bombs. This gave the. flank company time enough to build its stop in the trench. German shelling was descending on the new line. And almost at once figures of men of some sort were seen constantly moving across the front and flank where tho snow lay perhaps 200 or 300 yards away. The Germans in the trench had been beaten. But the Gcri mans ir. the support trenches were prepar- ! ing a swift counter-attack.' It fell immediately. There was a sudden burst of something like 20 high-explosive bombs in; a single shower over the barricade which the flank company had built. • An incessant I stream of bombs followed. The company bombers suffered, and tho men behind them fell back a little. But the company officer was on the spot in a flash. A private— tho last of the regular bombers except one who remained unwounded—shouted to five other privates—eimple riflemen—to follow him,_ and took up t,he bomb fight. Tho Lowis machine gunner fought his gun until tho German bombs began to fall around that also, when he immediately got it on to them- again from a better vantage po'nt. And then before the Germans had time to take advantage of their success the Australians wore into it again. Tho company offioer shot three Germans himself; the amateur bombers wero sweating with the effect of throwing; and tho artillery which had stood by our men so well in the attack crashed down on the lines which were supporting the German attack. Tho support withered in an instant under that hail. But the German bombers in front; fought on for nearly 30 wild minutes. Five separate times they appeared to come on. They were in No Man's Land on both s-ides of the Australians and in the trench, and they hung on and threw stubbornly. Then without warning a portion of the flank company with bombs and bayonets swarmed out of the trench, and the German, good fighter though ho was, could not face them. Some were bayoneted, more were bombed —and the rest fled. After that the Germans turned their artillery on to this trench and the trenches around it. In these little sectional attacks it is, of course, possible for tho German to concentrate all the "guns that he has to spare for miles around on to a little portion of trench; and the hail of shell-fire was very heavy indeed. The company which had done most of the fighting so far was uot the one on which the brunt of this fell, but rather the small carrying parties which accounted for a good part of the success of this intricately organised and well-carried-out attack. The attacking troops had so fax been doing all their own carrying. When this German barrage came down some Victorian troops who had watched tho Now South Walss battalion go forward magnificently under the bombardment voluntarily undertook the carrying, and from that time on throughout the night the Victorians through heavy shHl-fire carried this duty on. The Germans made another, attempt in the early hours of tho morning—but theywere nearly done ; The artillery came down on the main portion of this attack promptly, and after a heavy shower of bombs it pot?red out. But tho shelling went on steadily The following evening n request wai sent to a West Australian bntfcalicn to provide a company to tak" the place of, tho flank company of New South Welshmen and rnablo tho tired men who had trat up so fine a fi<rht to be withdrawn. Every man in the West Aiisf:i-alra.n battalion volunteered. The Germans had not given up tho place even then They shelled the captured trenches p°rs-strntry, and attacked th>s Australians on two following nights. Each time thn attack fiiled und°r artillery.

Tim flanking compnny of New South Welshmen lost nearly thre"-quartprs of the min whom it took in, but it boat the Germans and on. and camr> out fisrhtinc; still. And the way in which its imtfs and the Yietorinns and West Australians backed it deserves never to be forgotten.