THE AUSTRALIANS' POSITION.

Colonist, Volume LVII, Issue 14150, 29 July 1916, Page 5

THE AUSTRALIANS' POSITION.

INCIDENTS OF THE ATTACK

GERMANS ALL PICKED TROOPS

(Australian and N.Z. Cable Association)

(Received July 29, 0.10 a.m.) Paris, July 28

With the capture of the windmill the Australians are only a few hundred yards from the highest point .of the plateau, which is a slightly more commanding position than Foureaux Wood, three miles eastward.

The stubborn resistance at Pozieres was due to the Germans all being'picked troops. It is reported that the Kaiser himself ordered that the British must be kept out at all costs.

Over '200 machine guns defended the approach to Pozieres alone. Oiir bombardment destroyed most of them, but thirty were captured in good condition.

A German company in a small fort in the centre of the small village, though completely surrounded, held out for twelve hours. When the position was taken only four were alive, sixty. dead being heaped one above another in the little armoured shelter.

The commander of a Bavarian battalion defending the north-east portion of the village, realising the danger menacing the garrison, ordered a retirement. The Bavarians were obliged to cross the fife swept zone for 300 yards, where the British batteries decimated them.