SCOTS AT BATTLE OF BEAU MOST.

Hokitika Guardian, 3 February 1917, Page 1

SCOTS AT BATTLE OF BEAU MOST.

Ravlne Fort Triumph.

(F OH W. Bruch Tbon.a )

With the British Army in’ the

Field, Nov 29 A'onfside the Naval Division, Vs ho e story of Niv 12 and II 1 tuld yesterday, fought a numb-r of Schtish r?j> - meats who won laurels aa green in ai v in their rnnals ; end that ’s to fay rnheh. The capture of lieiuinoLtHamel and Y-ravine yields perhajs to no event in tha wa\ Both wire taken by storm within twelve hoars between G a.m. and 6 p.ru. on Nov 13 —though they were super-fortresses, defended by large gar. Dons as heavily armed and munitioued as the mm wished, and connected by tunnels with te?Brve depots of supplies and rail.foreemenD.

Y-ravine is a aeroent nearly half a mile loug. Tha mouth of tha serpent ia wide open, its lipa almo<t reaching ths old front line of German trenches guarding the approach to BaanmontHatuel. When the attack opened at G a.m. on Nov 13th there ponied from the mouth such a flash of flame that even Scotsmen when they directly fronted the blast were forced to pause. The attack stopped dead, but by a bold dash up to the very skirts of their own bursting shells, the troops just south of the ravine rushed one trench after another. At an early hour in the morning they had reached a point level with BsaumontHamel itself aud hammered blows on the body of the monster. North of the ravine the fighting was yet harder and progress •rather slower. But north and south the troops not content with reaching their own special goal, attacked tha flanks of the ravine along which they ad-

vanced. At 10 a.m. a platoon or so of men had forced a way into the stem of the letter Y, below the open mouth. All this part of the chasm is a terrible place to attack. It is made for defence. At the worst the sides are 30 feet deep, as straight as a cliff, as carioua and treacherous as a slag heap. Dug-outs are cut iuto the cliff, some capacious enough to hold almost a battalion, and so roofed as to defy artillery. From the upper jaw of the gape a tuun6l leads away back to the third Hue. The mm who swarmed down the sides into the stem of the Y—or body of the snake —found themselves sandwiched. A force, continually reinforced via the tunnel, held the jaw, and other enemy, also in touch with reinforcements, held the tail* These ScJtsmen h*d won their way to the neighbourhood of this enviable position between an enemy's pincers by hard individual fighthg organised spontaneously on tha field. “Is was a soldiers’ batila,” said a general, not without pride, Every man helped his neighbor; and soon the fruits of such soldiership were gathered. Between twelve and on 3 mid-day the Germans, finding themselves bombed on both sides, surrendared —jud orer 301 filed oat ia one group. ■ -ns^HEl