Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-07-05
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lians were so perfectly successful that
the whole action was completed in
an hour or so after its start. Hun
dreds, of prisoners had been sent down
under escort. and the record of a
brilliant little victory was already
being written.
Tanks Aid in Surprise.
The tanks, which co-operated with
the infantry, were one of the main
causes of the surprise and overthrow
of the German defenders.
The German prisoners. including a
battalion commander and two adju-
tants, are very sick men because they
are now in our hands. They confess
that up to 8 o'clock they had not the
faintest idea they were going to be
attacked.
The British artillery in this region
was very strong, and its fire was so
planned that when the attack opened
it would neutralize the enemy's guns
while the infantry advanced. This,
indeed, was what happened, and when
the bombardment opened with intense
drumfire and with concentrated coun-
ter battery work the German artillery
reply was so late and so feeble that
the Australians were well on the way
to their last objective before the first
shells were we'll on the old German
front line.
The enemy, holding the ground
south of Vaux- x-Sur-Somme, garrisoning
the village of Hamel and Vaire wood
and the trench system on the other
side of Hamel, belong to three divi-
sions of Prussiars and Rhinelanders.
These divisions were the Forty:third,
the Seventy-seventh and the Thir-
teenth, the last, who We're all men Of
the Rhine, having come lately to this
section from the area around Lens.
Germans, Ill, Wanted Quiet
They have been suffering from the
prevailing epidemic of influenza and
not intending to attack us, hoped rather
for a quiet time, but were kept on tenter
hooks by the presence of the Australians
in front of Them who do not give their
enemies much peace
There was the usual amount of harass-
ing fire from the British guns in the
early part of the night, neither more nor
less than that, and the Australian bri-
gade took up their assembly places III
dead quietude, doing their best to pre-.
vent any sound of human movement
from alarming the men on the other
side of No Mans Land.
They were all on the top note of con
! fdence and enthusiasm in believing that
victory was going to be easy and quick
as soon as the guns got to work. At one
place in front of the German earth
works called the Pear Trench, which
bulged out in small salient the Aus
tralians had to creep up close and lie
there before the attack.
Ten minutes after was when the
! infantry were to move, and two minutes
/ before then the drumfire began with
deafening roar.
/ 1T reminded me of Pozieres," said
an Australian officer, who wearss q
wound stripe dating from the old bat
tie. 1t reminded him of Pozieres be-
cause of the tremendous concentration
| of artillery and it's tumult of fire:
Under the widespread fight of shells
(the bombardment extended over a wide
'front.'. the tanks started forward
Smoke screens We're sent up in front o.
them in dense clouds. which lay low
on the ground, to hide them from the
German anti-tank guns, and into this
fog they went, nosing their way at q
steady pace.
JOyriding Into Battle
Besides the officers and crews, shut
up inside their steel walls, working the
! eISlleS anu guns, tHtie WeiS tliiSc vi
four men sitting on the tops, utterly
exposed. Their legs dangled over thu
sides of the tanks, like those of boy!
going for a ioyride. and in this wa!
they rode into hellfire. as it seemed u
the men watching them, becouse of th'
! smoke screens and the flashes of thu
shells beyond.
The infantry followed in waves, loos'
and open lines of men extending for
ward as they went close to the bar
rage. rolling slowly on ahead of them
so close that they took the risk of be
ing wounded by their own fire. but pre-
ferred this risk to the more deadly ont
of tagging behind and giving time 70,
the German machine gunners to get t
work
There were only a few places wher'
the German machine guns opened fir
and gave trouble. One of those posi-
tions was In the Pear trench, where m
tan kcould get into position. and her
the enemy fought stubbornly. firing ma
chine guns with a persistent tattoo unit
they were rushed by Australians.
Elsewhere some German anti-tanl