FIGHTING IN THEIR SHIRTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17063, 23 July 1917, Page 3

FIGHTING IN THEIR SHIRTS

"THE TEIIRIBLE AUSTRALIANS." Altbougu tne Gorman divisions around the bciupe are bearing the brunt ol tho preaent, ueavy lighting (writes a Scotsman war correspondent), tilieir comrades holding the soutnem Hank of this battle front, between liapaume and Cambrai have not been allowed to eat tho bread of idleness. Tho terrible Australians, as one .Bavarian survivor of the Lagnicourt raid describe* them, keep tne'ir opponents in a state of constant ieverish unrest. They are constantly pounded by artillery and shocked by unpleasant surprises. Smoke shells are showered on their new Hindenburg defences between doses of ordinary high explosive. They cannot stir from the shelter of their dug-outs or move through the fields behind these much advertised l trenches without breasting a storm which has but few lulls, and those of extremely brief and of uncertain duration. I asked officers who accompanied me to this part of our now front south of Queant whether the enemy attempted to counter this almost incessant bombardments "He gets at least ten times as much as he gives us," was the reply. "On occasions, when he lo- as his temper and tries to be really nasty he sets twentv times as much." We are facing the strongest part of the Hindenburg- line at Queant and Bullecourt where the German heavy batteries lie in deep, well protected pits designed as part of the new permanent defences, yet they husband their ammunition and fire sparingly. We know that t(he German Staff has repeatedly warned the artillery of the necessity for economy. — Enemy Economising Shells.— They must save guns as well as shells, and while one sector of the front is involved in a life and death struggle the others are forced to sit in comparative quietude under the punishment of the British batteries unable to respond to our challenge, or to deluge the country behind our trenches with explosives as they did a year a.go. Thus the garrisons of Queant and Bullecourt hearing the incessant thunder of our guns nearer Arras cannot be protected against systematic castigation by "the terrible Australians." Since a foolish raid into Lagnicourt, which cost the enemy between two and three thousand men, he ihas been content to keep his infantry under cover. I saw many evidences of that decisive defeat in the shallow valley behind the ruins of Lagnicourt Dead Germans still lay in some places, and fragments of their equipment were scattered over the grass. They had swept in columns out of their trenches | in front of Queant—tihat village was in [ plain view from where I stood—and the German observers, watching the advance, could see without glasses every detail of the assault, and of the counter-attack which flung_ the remnants of this force back on their own 'wire. It may be thought that the Australians were routed by tho sudden descent of such a heavy force. "It takes more than a rush of Huns to shake them," said an officer who had witnessed the successful conclusion of this episode. — Germans Trapped.— When thev saw that the Germans might get as far as the guns they fell back. but. although they had no time to dress, they did not s forget the most important thin"They retreated in their shirts, but carried the breech blocks of their guns. Less than three hours later-the intruders were trying to get back to their own trendies through the openings in the wire. Our batteries never did finer shooting. They had each opening ranged to an inch, and as successive parties of terrorised Germans .were ordered through by their officers they simply disappeared in bursts of black smoke. Those who bolted in ofiher directions were caught in the unout wire. • Some of the?e. Australians—still clad only m their shirts—lav on the damp ground killing Germans for an hour afterwards. "I cold?" repeated one of them when questioned by an officer. "I would "o without trousers for the rest of my life for another chance .like this." The occupants of Queant have had bitter exnerience of the Anzacs since they were driven out of Lagnicourt into the Hindenbursr trenches. The Australians dashed up the ridge into the village with such impetus that many Germans were caught before thev realised that their adversaries were within striking distance.