LENS PUSH.

Hokitika Guardian, 1 September 1917, Page 4

LENS PUSH.

HAIG’S MEN ON THREE SIDES

GRIP TIGHTENED.

(From W. Beach Thomas.)

War. Correspondents’ Headquarters, France, June 30

Telegraphing last night just before going out to see the battle southwest of Lons, I had the hardihood to prophesy that we should do exactly what we meant to do. It was so. L saw tlie battle, the simultaneous lightning of miles of guns,- followed by the dash of the infantry, and many hours later 1 went to ask at one chief hub of information whether all had gone as well as it seemed. “ Everything went like clockwork,” was the answer. And this is the outstanding feat of the war at. present, that each of onr attacks goes more like clockwork than its predecessor.

Now for (he battle itself, as it looked and as it was. Soon after seven, half an hour in advance of a violent thunderstorm and waterspouts ot rain, the fickle serenity of a panorama as spacioiis as aiiy iii France was split in two by the simultaneous outburst of several miles of guns several miles deep. 1 have never seen so spectacular a battle. 1 'could see the compact lightning of ( field guns burst from scores of dark holes and corners, and a few seconds later there were their shells bursting in groups as close together as the flashes of tlie guns. A mile or two behind these a vast howitzer, punctual and stead y as tlie field guns were quick and lively, thiuidered. its. ponderous hate! I reckoned that I myself could see the flashes, and they were continuous, of 200 and more guns, and, what is a rarer eight, T cbuld see inaliybf these shells burst on their target., The impression was that the earth liad let out imprisoned fires through numberless fissures. HERMANS RUN* AWAY. Immediately the storm burst a crowd of S.O S. signals shot up from the German trenches; it was 1 a satis-

factory sign of nerves. One of our observers laughed aloud, as you might laugh at a ludicrously frightened clown on the stage, and some of the Germans were very frightened. Opposite a Midland regiment in which I had a personal interest-, two or three platoons leapt from a trench instantly and ran for their lives. They knew what an intensive bombardment meant and were off even before the first waves of our infantry went over.

We found a brand-new machine gun, beautifully set up and aligned but never fired, arid one of the wounded prisoners, ingenuously pleased to he taken, Explained how his one hope had bbeii for a quiet place in the line. His men talked of casualties and retirement, and at homo, where he had just been on leave, they talked of food, it was hot an agreeable world ; He had been in the lino only twenty-four j Jioui'H. Such an exa-riiple from one | part of the field does riot mean that the brittle was a walk-over or that tliri enemy did not fight and tire well. Iu places tlie German barrage was heavy. 1 could see their shells bursting all along in front ot the 1 great road from Arras to Lens. Two shells in front of me hit the Souohez , RiVer and sent up straight, narrow 1 columns of water to an immense j height, so that they seemed to stay j suspended in the air as long as a smoke column. The bridges over the river had been already destroyed by their engineers. Another bevy of shells settled like angry bees on a spot where possibly the enemy thought he had located a battery ; a score or so broke in a minute or two witiiin A narrow circle. AIRMEN Ur IN A STORM. Towards the north-west of Leris we released a heavy smoko screen, and each smoke shell as it burst let fall a cascade of golden rain, soon drowned in its own fiimes. Snch a spectacle was too immense to last long. Half an hour after the moirieut of the fiist concentrated flash Arid thunder tlie whorls and eddies of dust and smoke ran into one another and melted into one sol'.d fog that slowly swallowed up Lens and Lievin and Hill 05 and Avion and Oppy and, sweeping m arer, enveloped our Own guns so that their flashes seemed now to emerge no longer from the solid ground but frohi various layers of tlie air.

>v Ahd then the real thunder began, though it was still dwarfed by the guns arid even by the rattle of shells iu the air. Waterspouts of rain came down and roadways arid lanes became streams through which platoons moving up lashed forward while the raii'i spouted off their tin hats and mackintosh capes, bur aeroplanes were thick in the air iip to the very crack of cloom. Some; as they shot homeward. dropped brilliant star-, lights, and one plnue Seemed to have a peculiar affection fdr one gun; it kept returning to ils fi iend, Once it tumbled down head river heels anyhow, almost on to the top ol its friend; once it coasted smoothly down, whispering into its ear congratulations on its work. Rut the hulk of onr planes, which were almost unopposed, were nnnoticed unless they were in vast groups or engaged in some unusual tactics.

The battle had three distinct, divisions. Some of the heaviest fighting was north of the city, close to Loos, held bj a very stout Prussian regiment. We were raiding, not attacking. Our men ehtered a trench at the first intention, rind there engaged in a really hot struggle, probably the hottest of the day. The enemy was mt for no-surrender, and rushed out of dug-outs with a good store of bombs, but ho was at some disadvantage, and our men, getting the better of the bomb fight, drove some back into the dug-outs and killed them there and occupied the trench for an hour oh two. During this iiriie tiie Prussians continually counter-attacked, and our soldiers exhausted great stores of small-arms ammunition on advancing bodies. Thoiiglioht this area the orieiriy s losses in dead, not in prisoners, were very heavy indeed.

MiIiDANDEIiS ANi* CANADIANS

- The centre of tile battle was on both batiks of the SpucHez Riyer, where Midland aiict other English troops fought alongside Canadians. The Ktigiisii troops, reached the trenches they desired almost without loss, and held them without being countered. Ail tiie eiibniy fled to tiife shelter of ftiiiied houses or behind tiie vefv stroiig line that stilt defends Leiis itself. Fighting aiiiohg patrols in front of tliis liiie still Coiitinttes.

file Cahadialis HM a Harder task ; they fliet very heavy machine gun fire from two slag-heaps known as Fdske 4 aiid 4 bis, btit, in spite of this trouble, forced tlifcir way Half through Avion village and occupied tactical poiiits for which they had set out. It was a determined and skilful piece of infantry work.

Farther sohtli, again, English troops rushed a strong German liiie about the edge of Oppy Wood and village. The sth Bavarians, who look" what they are, very stout fellows, fought well, but the barrage was good and the infantry very quick on its heels. We took here some 250 prisoners and inflicted heavy losses, but it is chiefly in the centre of the battle, south of Sotichez, where the ground is most obviously cumbered with German dead.

The battle brings out extreme variations iii the German troops. Whereas .the Prussians on the liorth aiici tlie Btivtirlahs iii the south proved fiiie soldiers in physique aiid courage, tfie irbdpA in the ceiitre wete weak. OF these latter one division had. been reduced to oiie-sbveiitii of its force in recent fighting find had passed on to their successors a most whole-

some fear of the British guns, and tile infantry' expressed a special fear of the Canadians, who had raided tlieni contimtPusly. Just before this battle they had been moved more north because they would* not face„. the Canadians, whom they regarded as a supermail. Perhaps the boiling oil which was again used by us at one place in this battle did not encourage their moral.

Tile result of the battle is a tightening on Lens, the seizure of man-y points of tactical importance front Oppy northwards, and the driving of the enemy from some of his best trenches. The depth of the rainfall, the effect of which is increased along the Souchez River by intentional flooding, virtually put an end to the battle and greatly handicapped the Canadians in the latter part of their fighting, but the storm came just late enough, and thanks to the quickness of the attack we had won most of our ground in the half-hour between the outbreak of bur barrage and the bursting of the waterspout.

The town of Leiis is a wreck. We can iiow distinctly see how each house has been systematically destroyed by the enemy just as he destroyed Peronneaud Bapaume.