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Show BRILLIANT DASH OF AUSTRALIANS Germans Surprised and Six Lines of Trenches Are Captured. Paris, Aug. 6, 6:55 p. m. A dispatch dis-patch to La Llberte, dated north of France says: 'The latest British advance north of Pozieres was the result of a brilliant bril-liant offensive begun on the night of August 4-5, after an artillery preparation prepara-tion of great efficacy. Since the Australians Aus-tralians captured Pozieres, the enemy has not ceased his furious counter-attacks against the village, in the outskirts out-skirts of which he had succeeded in keeping some ground. "Tho British commander resolved on Friday to clear the village by taking tak-ing the principle support of tho sec ond line of the German defense, made up of a series of small works extending extend-ing from Bapaume road to that ot Thiepval, on a front of about three kilometers. "The bombardment began about daybreak and continued unceasingly until night. It destroyed the defenses, defen-ses, leveled Intrenchments and ren. dered shelters uninhabitable. At 11 o'clock at night the work of the artillery artil-lery having been deemed sufficient, the order to attack was passed along to the units grouped in tne village of Pozieres. While the Surrey and Kent troops pushed on in an assault against the positions oh the Bapaumo road, which were taken In less than hnlf an hour, the Australians with the Sussex regiments at their left, captured cap-tured without striking a blow, six lines of trenches northwest of Pozieres. Poz-ieres. They carried also a large work situated at the intersection of the Thiepval and Moquet roads, and continued con-tinued their victorious progress east of the Leipslc redoubt in the direction of Thiepval. 'The operation, In the opinion of ob-servers, ob-servers, was one of the most brilliant since the beginning of the offensive in the Somme, and was carried out with rapidity and certainty, which was aided by the precision of the fire o? the British batteries. 'The British troops advanced through intrenchments which had been completely destroyed and ma. chine guns and defenders buried", and at certain points not the slightest re sistance was encountered. 'The Germans, moreover, seemed to hav been taken by surprise by this at-tack, at-tack, on which they had evidently not counted at so early a date. Decided hesitation was observed In the decis ion of the German commander which resulted in delaying the bringing up of considerable reinforcements'. It was more than four hours after the British had attained the obective that counter-attacks occurred and these were easily repulsed." nn |