MR RUMOUR'S REPORT.

Hokitika Guardian, 5 October 1918, Page 3

MR RUMOUR'S REPORT.

fAUSTRALIAN* S' X.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION

LONDON, Oct-. 3. Mr. Gilmour, writing on Monday

says: It is feared that numbers of Americans, who went forward yesterday, as far as Jouay, have been taken prisoners. The Australians have boon pressing to-dav. They released many parties of flic “Sammies,” who had spent a wej ( night- in shell holes. The attack of the Americans , undoubtedly threw the enemy into a stato of serious disorganisation. It speaks highly for American fighting qualities, dash, and rapidity in acquiring the technique of the soldier craft that is necessary to the finished fighter. Writing on Tuesday, Mr. Gilmour

says: The Australians and Americans' have lost no time in investigating the captured underground canal, which all had considered one of tho chief obstacles of the Hindenburg line. They found the place in utter darkness. Electric torches disclosed long linos of floating barges. There was 'every sign that the Germans had recently been living there in large numbers.

The Americans whose duty it was to guard the southern end of the canal have promptly adopted house-boat life. They have made themselves comfortable'. Their- more adventurous spirits declare that they have already walked through the entire length of the canal, which is six thousand yards. This must he a risky thing to do, because the Germans are believed to have burrowed in all directions, thus making the canal-tunnel a main corridor, from which there radiate numberless shafts, passages and dugouts.

Our line at present embraces twothirds of the tunnel. Proof was afforded during the Australian advance that some Germans still remain in certain places. They had built vast underground habitations. As we push on their position becomes perilous: that is, unless they have tunnels ahead leading far hack info the Gorman lines. Referring to the enemy’s desperate resistance around Joncourt, Mr. Gilmour says: Evidently the Germans, on this part- of the front, have been made to realise that they have their hacks to the wall, and that the Hindenburg Line must bo held.

They already have sent In two reinforcing divisions, and are making the most of their artillery, but our men feel that the enemy does not possoss guns or troops in numbers sufficient- to stop them.

The Americans are highly pleased with their success. The Americans tell some amusing stories of the surrenders of GermanAmericans. As the Americans approached the German treucos, the GermanAmericans greeted them with a pronounced American accent. One shouted “I’m from Charlestownl’ve been waiting for yon since 1915.”

Many of them, had already put on their packs in readiness to surrender. Writing on Wednesday, Mr. Gilmour says: The penetration of the Hindenburg Tine is being steadily completed. The Americans, who first reached Reqneval, the entrance of the underground Canal, found it- ablaze with electric light, like a vast fairyland grotto. The Germans left their packs and personal belongings on the floors and shelves, and in barges. In a cockhou.se fourteen corpses were found apparently cooks who been killed by an exploding shell. Five wounded Germans were discovered on a barge. They stated they had not been tended for four days. The whole tunnel and its extensive ramifications have not- yet been explored.

THURSDAY’S OPERATIONS. LONDON, October 4

Mr Gilmour, writing on Thursday says: The battle was resumed this morning, with a set attack, with a view of piercing the rearmost Hindenburg position, tho Bcaurevoir line. It is between two and three miles eastward of the underground canal. Itrepresents the last- of the second line of resistance for several miles.

Australians belonging to units whfci, have had an easier time since their storming of Mont St. Quentin, nre already reported to be in a considerable portion of the Bcaurevoir Tine. The attack is supported by heavy weight artillery and a. number of tanks The big guns all night long last night hammered the trenches. A British advance on the immediate right- is reported to be satisfactory progressing.