A SUDDEN CHANGE

Waikato Times, Volume 89, Issue 13752, 27 April 1918, Page 5

A SUDDEN CHANGE

THE GERMANS DRIVEN OUT. SKILFUL AND DARING OPERATION. GERMAN PRISONERS' PLIGHT. (Australian and N.Z. Cable Assn.) Received April 27, 10 a.m. LONDON, April 26, 11.30 a.m. Mr Philip Gibbs writes: —After writing yesterday's dispatches many things happened. We lost Villers Bretonneux co|npletely, and the enemy was in possession of the village long enough to strip it with men and machine-guns. Till ten o'clock on Wednesday night the Germans believed that they held it firmly and permanently. Then came a brilliant counter-attack by the Australian troops. By a most skilful and daring piece of generalship they were sent forward in the darkness without any preliminary artillery preparations, relying absolutely on the weapons they carried to regain an important position, which gave the enemy full observation of our positions on both sides of the Somme and the valley beyond Amiens. The splendid courage of the Australians, the cunning of their machine-gunners, and the line leadership of the officers achieved a success. In conjunction with English battalions, they spent the night in clearing out the enemy from the village, where he made a desperate resistance. We brought back between 700 and 800 prisoners. It was a complete reversal of fortune for the enemy, whose bodies lie in heaps between Villers Bretonneux and Warfusee, and all about the ruins and fields in the neighbourhood. That sector of the valley of the Somme is no longer undfr fire—indeed, our guns and the enemy's alike have declared a truce, because the Australians, English and German soldiers are mixed up so closely that shelling is impossible on both sides.

The German machine-gunners on .Wednesday morning at many places were entirely put off diy the AngloAustralian counter-attack, small parties of Germans, resisting behind the ruins of the banks, whitetour men were' engaged routing them out. The roads, behind .tth«: British lines' have been much cut uptby the murderous German.-! artiLlery ! itire. Passing along the broken road were living men with the ash-grey colotir of dead bodies. They were German prisoners under the escort of English and Australian soldiers. Throughout the morning I saw groups of prisoners limping along the

roads, sometimes carrying stretches with wounded officers. The men had been many hours without food, as they were cut off~from their supplies by our artillery fire 1 . j .