The Australian who rushed four German machine-gun nests has been named an honorary citizen of the Somme
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Outside the French town of Péronne on 31 August 1918, Private William Allan Irwin – a Gomeroi man from near Coonabarabran in New South Wales – was pinned down by German machine-gun fire alongside fellow Australian soldiers from the 33rd infantry battalion.
They had been ordered to wrest control of enemy-held positions in an area known as Road Wood during the battle of Mont St-Quentin.
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