THE FIRST PHASE.

Hokitika Guardian, 2 April 1918, Page 1

THE FIRST PHASE.

A FRENCH DESCRIPTION. fAUSTRALIAN N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION^ PARIS, March 30. From the French standpoint the battle opened on the evening of the 21st, when several divisions were rushed up in motor wagons to aid the British ri«ht, which was thus enabled to withdraw along the Grozat Canal. A not her F reach force rea died Chau ny on the 22nd, and' was instructed to keep in touch with the retiring British right. The French on the 24th repelled repeated attempts- to cross the Oise, the French line extending to Noyon anc Lassigny.

Now that the initial danger is passed it can be said that the Germans were very nearly breaking the Allied front in this region on the 25tli. The pressure increased on the 26th and 2ith, and the French front was pressed back to the Avre river, and then to Mont Didior. The enemy’s pressure was tremendous.

'riiero were only sixteen German divisions on a fifty-mile front before tin* battle. Hindenburg and Ludendorff commenced the great gamble with 38, ■and by Thursday oighty-sevi a had been identified, representing prac! Pally 1,000,000 mem though the sector was only one-eighth of the Western h r .M between the sea and the Alps. French war experts believe that the Germans are unable to bring up more than forty divisions more. The slaughter of the enemy was most terrible. The country roads are strewn with German dead. Great_ piles of bodies were col. 1 voted •after' each day’s fighting in order to keep open lanes for the traffic. Only on Thursday and Friday did the enemy begin to burn and bury the dead. Previously he had not even time to remove all the -wounded.

The spectacle of the slaughter had tin/ inevitable effect on the fresh German troops, many of whom woo. youngsters.

French officers speak in glowing terms of the stubborn courage of the British. One narrates that when General Petain thrust in his troops the British were outnumbered hv four to one.

French colonels told their troops the seriousness of the position and that their brave British friends were in danger of being overwhelmed.

The one anxiety of the Poilus was: (shall we get there in time? When tliev crossed the edge of the Oise plateau the French, found themselves amidst a liand-to-hand struggle between tlie Gormons and the British. The newcomers deployed and got among the British. No orders were necessary. The Anglo-French charged, and, though sometimes fighting against eight to one odds, they forced hack the Bodies ami the original positions were temporarily won hack.

The Germans resumed the battle ai four next morning without artillery preparation. Ten times in rapid succession waves swept forward, and ten times they were hurled hack in disorder.

Twice the British cavalry, who made a splendid spectacle, intervened and charged the enemy masses. Superb in their contempt for death, the horsemen broke up t/he German columns. The Allies had withstood terrible assaults, but at last they saw the French reserves coming up full of magnificent ardour and eager for the fray. Prisoners describe. tHeir losses as enormous, mainly due to machine guns The eighty-eighth division was almost wiped out and the twenty-sixth very hadlv mauled.

Correspondents static that all the dead found on the battlefield were stripped of their clothes and equipment, which the Germans collect systematic«dlv and send to the rear owing to the shortage of clothing and leather. British and French uniforms are evidently collected for use in some deceptive manoeuvres.

Prisoners are astonished at the comparatively small number of British and French dead left on the battlefield. The German commanders are astonished at the Franco-Britisli resistance. They had told the men that it would ho .all over in a few days.