AUSTRALIANS AT YPRES

Otago Witness, Issue 3315, 26 September 1917, Page 53

AUSTRALIANS AT YPRES

GUNNERS AND DOCTORS. (From Captain C. E. W. Bean, Australian Press Representative with the Commonwealth Forces. Copyright by Crown.) " . LONDON, August 30. The Australian artillery is still engaged in the thick of the Ypres battle. Two days' heavy rain has plunged the whole battlefield into thick red clay and mud, not unlike that of the Somme In winter. Almost every morning some German aeroplane escapes the vigilance of our air scouts, and hurries low over the mudficld like a skate over the sea bottom. The visit is followed by attempts to obliterate our batteries. In this long fight one main setoff to .the tremendous strain and almost over-powering work is the knowledge that in the air and on the ground the enemy certainly gets more than he gives. The strain on the Germans must now be appallingly heavy. Another Austi-alian unit involved in the great fight at Ypres, and! not previously mentioned, has been the Australian clearing hospital. This came under shell-fire, both during the Ypres battle and at Messines, and was also bombed by aeroplanes. The nurses behaved with the utmost gallantry, staying in the wards, and even placing basins on the patients' heads instead of steel helmets. They bitterly resented the order to leave the wards. Five Australian nurses have now been given Military Medals. The medioal officers, though a bomb killed one and blew seven nurses' tents to rags, continued to work as if this heavy additional strain wero non-existent. AUSTRALIAN AIRMEN. GALLANTRY IN FRANCE. Officers of the Australian Flying Corps have been for a considerable time past in France, gaining experience with the Royal Flying Corps. Several were in action in the great battle on July 31, At least one of these was actually leading his patrol, within a fortnight of his first flight. Another was so bitten with the excitement of low flying .behind the German lines that he, with a fellow Australian of the Royal Flying Corps, flow day after day low over the German cratorfiekfy and along the German roads, until the Germans wounded him. Another, within the first few days, had a shell through both planes, and his elevator control was shot away by a German machine. Despite this, by cleverly working his engine, ho managed safely to roach the aerodrome. Some splendid men have fallen, one of the first being broufht down in a fight between seven British and 25 German planes, eifht miles belrnrl the German lines. It was a glorious fight, for all the rest got back after bringing dlown seven German planes. The magnificent fliers of the British Flying Corps toll us that they find r the Australian airmen always ready and eager for any adventure, and extraordinarily selfreliant in carrying it out.