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At 5.30 am on 2 April the 50th and 51st
Battalions attacked the German ‘outpost village’ of Noreuil,
which was one of a string of villages fringing the Hindenburg line.
Part of the 50th assaulting force penetrated and enveloped the enemy
positions, silencing them with rifle grenades and bombs. On the
right, however, the advance was temporarily checked by a barricade
which Stokes mortars had failed to dislodge. A bombing party was
sent to deal with the enemy post which consisted of a machine gun
and forty-five men. One of the party, a Private O’Connor, sniped
at and killed the gunner at the post, enabling Jensen to get close
enough to throw in his first bomb. Jensen still had one bomb in his
hand and he pulled the pin out of another with his teeth. He bluffed
the enemy with the two bombs and told them that they were
surrounded, thus inducing them to surrender. He sent one of his
prisoners to order a neighbouring party to surrender, which they
did. When some Australians fired on the latter party, Jensen stood
up on the barricade, waved his helmet until the fire ceased and then
sent his prisoners back to the Australian lines. |