village where Australians were billeted one soldier
failed to salute. When the general stopped him his hand shot up in
approved fashion as he recognized his commander and he said contritely,
with the touch of respect of a man to the leader in whom he believes:

"I did not see that it was you, sir!"

The general had on a mackintosh with the collar turned up, which
concealed his rank.

"But you might see that it was an officer."

"Yes, sir."

"And you salute officers."

"Yes, sir."

Which he would hereafter now that it was General Birdwood's order,
though this everlasting raising of your hand, as one Australian said,
made you into a kind of human windmill when the world was so full of
officers. Gradually all came to salute, and when an Australian salutes
he does it in a way that is a credit to Australia.

After a period of fighting a tired division retired from the battle
front and a fresh one took the place. Thus, following the custom of the
circulation of troops by the armies of both sides, whether at Verdun or
on the Somme, the day arrived when along the road toward the front came
the Australian battalions, hardened and disciplined by trench warfare,
keen-edged in spirit, and ready for the bold task which awaited them at
Pozieres. This time the New Zealanders were not along.

XVI

THE AUSTRALIANS AND A WINDMILL

The windmill upon the hill--Pozieres--Its topography--Warlike
intensity of the Australians--A "stiff job"--An Australian
chronicler--Incentives to Australian efficiency--German complaint
that the Australians came too fast--Clockwork efficiency--Man-to-man
business--Sunburned, gaunt battalions from the vortex--The fighting
on the Ridge--Mouquet Farm--A contest of individuality against
discipline--"Advance, Australia!"--New Zealanders--South Africans.

When I think of the Australians in France I always think of a windmill.
This is not implying that they were in any sense Quixotic or that they
tilted at a windmill, there being nothing left of the windmill to tilt
at when their capture of its ruins became the crowning labor of their
first tour on the Somme front.

In their progress up that sector of the Ridge the windmill came after
Pozieres, as the ascent of the bare mountain peak comes after the
reaches below the timber line. Pozieres was beyond La Boisselle and
Ovillers-la-Boisselle, from which the battle movement swung forward at
the hinge of the point where the ol