Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1916-07-27
AUSTRALIAN TROOPS
HEROES Of NEW
BATTLE OF SOMME
German Prisoners Says the Col.
onials Come Too Fast for
Them--German Gas
Not Effective.

With the British armies in the field
July 49, y. IN. via London, July "a.
;23 a. m-The Australian Is the glory
of to-day's action, which takes the
British offensive to the end Of It's
third week and what might be called
the third phase. Not once In the three
weeks have tho guns been silent. All
the while the fighting has continued
until the spectator has become num-
bed with this superhuman struggle.
Mud covered men return from tho
| trenches and rested battalions go in.
Prisoners taken in each fresh attack
/ express the same wonder at the per-
sistent hammerinR of the British It
/ has become twenty four hours n day,
the army fighting night as we'll as day.
! The attack Of to-day began about
one O'Clock in tho morning. While re-
sistinE many counter attacks through
the week. the British have been creep
Ing forward. More little round spots
of new advanced posts and pencilled
lines Of saps and trenches extended
as the human moles dug their way
forward. More German artillery and
more troops have been massed to meet
the increasing numbers of the British
while the British guns kept moving
nearer and practicing shots at targets
for future concentrations Of fire.
More important than ever to either side
are those points OF high ground on the
front of the British pressure Both
straining comtatants strive for the posi-
tons saying: Il must have that"
All last week, the Associated Press cor
respondent kept his eye on some black
stck-like points resembling broken tele-
graph poles, which were once shade Il ees
In the village of Pozieres. Villages like
La Boiselle have become SO unrccogniz-
able from shell fire that one does not know
where the village begins or ends. But the
sticks of trees are whitfield and Whitfield
by the shell bursts until direct h.t at
the base levels them.
BY the location of the shell bursts in the
morning It could be seen how far the Rrit-
ish had wormed their way up over night
Through all the army there is sense Of ex-
ultation which seems to allow no ono 10
become tired-eXultat over an arn:y's
first offensive. The death of comrades.
officer or man, is accepted as something
inevitable and there is n strange absence
on the part of the British of any grim.
ness. They go at it as rart of the davis
work
one of the humors of the week N
the army is the German gas shells. Az
first the numbers of them were as
founding, especially those which do
not explode but emit volume of gas
One British soldier called out. IT YOU
expect to kill us with them YOU have
to come over and hold them up to our
noses"
The British officers are worried lest
the British public, hearing of the large
volume of gas shells will insist that
the British begin the use of a weapon
which seems wholly disbelieved in by
the British army experts
"Pozieres will be hard nut TO crack"
everybody has been saying in the last
few days. That task was given to the
Australians this morning Smooth
shaver, clear-cut of feature-there is
no mistaking the Australian at the
front. He wears a SLOUGH hat while
all the rest of the British wear caps.
rising sun is his badge. His ways
are democratic. his pay is the
highest of any soldier in Europe.
which he spends freely Omen air men.
with plenty of Initiative some saw
that the discipline of the Australian is
poor. Asked If hs did not know IL
was the duty Of a soldier to salute a
superior officer. an Australian re-
piled: Il am fighter. not a soldier
sir and absent minded"
The Australians met the Hath Ger
man division, which had been rushed
from Ipres and prisoners taken, In
Guiding one hundred in a body say
frankly that the Australians came on
too quickly for them.