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How six unsung Australian heroes took on the Germans in WW1

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A soldier makes his way through a trench along the Western Front during WW1.
A soldier makes his way through a trench along the Western Front during WW1, date unknown.(Australian War Memorial/Thuillier Collection)

In August of 1918, just three months before the end of WW1, six Australians captured 71 prisoners and nine machine guns on the western front battlefields of France. It's an action that's now regarded as critical in precipitating the defeat of Germany. The Battle of Amiens was the most decisive battle of 1918, and it was these six diggers who, by capturing high ground known as the "Chipilly Spur" achieved an objective, previous attacks costing thousands of lives had failed to achieve.

Historian, author, and teacher Lucas Jordan has written an account of who these six Australian soldiers were, what inspired their successful act of courage and what happened to them after the war, in a new book called "The Chipilly Six – Unsung heroes of the Great War".

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World War 1, War