BATTLE IN VAULTS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXVI, Issue 3575, 9 October 1916, Page 5

BATTLE IN VAULTS.

A GRIM CONTEST.

LONDON, October <5. Mr Phillip Gibbs writes a grim story of the capture oi' the monastery of TSaucoui'i i'Abb&yo:—''For three days aud nights there were terrifying doings in tho deep vaulted crypts and cellars which the heaviest British explosivel--were unable to reach. The Britisl followed the Germans into the vault. 1 and fought with bombs, which filled the caverns with strange lights, loosened tho massive stones, , and Smashed ' tht ancient pillars. Scores of bodies still lie in pools of blood in the depths oi' those vaults. ' """■ ' : "An even stranger sight was pro- | ' scnted by two ' tanks/ which crawlet' over the trenches, crushing the Germans. An early British attack was checked at a double line of trenches ir front of tho monastery, but the tanks enabled . the' infantry to pass the trenches, go through the monastery ruins, and dig a riew ditch on the northern side. '■•':

"A storm of rain swamped the ditch. ,and!all round and behind it the ground"became'a quagmire for a mile. Food and ammunition-carriers became bogged, and it was impossible to get supplies to tho little body of men in the Abbey, who were dangerously isolated. Their position would have been desperate, but the Germans themselves had lost heart, were as wet am* hungry as ow c own men, \and decided to retreat, while only a few snipers am" machine-gunners stayed behind. A party of them surrendered tinder an officer, who came to the Abbej and told their story.

"Later, German reserves arrived .with a new supply of bonibs and sit-. tacked the British in the Abbey. We '■ had tho disadvantage owing to the accidental explosion of a dump of bombs, leaving the British with "only what bombs they carried on their bodies. ' A dogged .fight^continued for two. days amid heavy rainstorms. The British clung desperately to their water-logged (holes., The fighters were wet to the skin, covered with mud, and utterly weary. The wounded were in a tragic plight, but their fighting spirit was unquenched. . "■'Throughout it all the hottest fight-, ing continued ftp rage underground. Finally wo cleared up Eaucourt l'Abbaye. This technical phrasc > has an ugly significance." It means:'that: there was not a single German left >n the Abbey vaults except the bodies op; the dead. If the ghosts of old monks who. once came blinking down with horn lanthqrns to fetch the Abbot's wine now, walk;, they will see ■British soldiers covered with mud, cleaning their rifles, binding up the wounded, .and chattering cheerfully of the light that is over."