YPRES A MERE BRAWL BY COMPARISON.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 56, 6 March 1916, Page 5

YPRES A MERE BRAWL BY COMPARISON.

<. FRIGHTFULrCARNAGE«INFL!CTEIX4)H-THE ENEMY.., FRENCH SAVED BY MIRACLE Df -SECOND ATTACK. !V, (Received 10.20 a-m.) PARIS, March 5. M. Marcel Jaures, a relative of M. Jean Jaures, the noted Socialist leader who was shot in the first week of the war, wounded at Verdun, relates:— "I fought at Ypresa year ago. That battle was a mere brawl compared with Verdun. Only a fiend or a Kaiser could have sacrificed German lives with such prodigality. The first assault was crushed under an enormous weight of metal. Half the attackers were wiped out and the remainder lied to the shelter of a wood. They sallied out, strongly reinforced, and kept"steadily on though rapidly thinning. When they were 700 yards away our machine-guns and rifles started, the carnage being frightful. The remnants struggled on for a few yards and then fled in wild panic to the wood, pursued by screaming shells. Our artillery concentrated its fire on the wood, which was soon ablaze from end to end. "Our infantry advanced to harass the enemy as he quitted the wood, and ■we were exposed to a murderous fire. We sheltered in shell holes for half an lour, but reached our objective, despite heavy losses. The Germans attacked us, singing and cheering, my impression being that they were drunk. Our machines anowed lanes in their ranks. The survivors lay down behind breastworks of their fallen comrades and fired until they had exhausted their ammunition, then charged with the bayonet. We fired a volley point blank, and all fell or fled, except a handful, who were bayoneted or taken prisoner, some refusing quarter. "The .second attack was prepared in a snowstorm. They came ou at night in a terrific onslaught. We were almost swept off our feet. No quarter was .given, or taken. "The battle swayed to and fro over the slushy ground, hundreds falling. It was most difficult to keep a foothold and many slipped and paid the penalty with their lives. Our slender line seemed snapping when a miracle happened. We held on and felt the enemy weakening. At midnight he was in full flight."