MR MURDOCK’S REPORT.

Hokitika Guardian, 5 October 1918, Page 1

MR MURDOCK’S REPORT.

[rEK PRESS ASSOCIATION.—COPYRIGHT.]

LONDON, October 3. Air Murdoch writing on. Monday says: The fine siicessc s gained by nil sections of I lie Allied armies in the north, south and centre •resulting in at least a hundred thousand of the enemy troops being put out of action in four days, include many heroic stories. None surpasses that of th 0 American advance. Storming over muddy shell holes across acres of barbed wire and entangled trenches, nothing could exceed their bravo determination or their willingness to undergo suffering or likewise their eagerness to secure victory. After capturing Bellicourt. and Nouray, tho Americans refused to pause. Shattering afield they declared th ■ would take the Australian objective as well as their own. They pushed on to Joneourt, where late in the afternoon Australians came up and found groups of Americans liolding out- gallantly against strong enemy forces. Subsequently the line was established at Xourav for the night. Many tanks, intended to help flic Americans were knocked out soon after starting, one whole lino being blown up by a series of small land mines.

The Americans • lacked skill in clearing out the German nests hidden in the largo tunnels and com plicated dugout. system. They went on under terrible difficulties, through heavy rain and mud, and without artillery support for fear of " pouring shells upon the isolated pockets of Americans left in forward shell holes. The whole area, says All 1 Alurdocli. is covered with scattered fighting. There are nests of machine guns which make it- impossible for runners to go overland, and the shelling makes telephonic. eommunichtion almost impossible. The best way to picture the fighting is to think of two bare rolling ridges, a few seattod villages, numerous lines of deep trenches, mid no sign of life except spurts of white laborious parties of soldiers following the lines of bursting bombs that are hurled against the Germans hidden in trenches ahead. The Huns cling desperately and resourcefully to the trenches covering the whole of the underground tunnel, from which stairways lead to exit Concrete posts on the surface hold the machine gunners. The tunnel is 25 feet wide. The troops inside it are safe. No shell could pierce its walls and no gas fumes could enter. As we win the surface of the tunnel, yard by yard, we throw bombs inside at the same time guarding the enemy outlet. Tho. Australians and Americans in the captured portions have sumptuous bn;ttle-qfirnirto,rs. They eat German envisages, and smoke German cigars aboard their German barges.

Writing on Wednesday, ATr Alurdocli says: Tho situation is best summed up by saying that we have a sporting chance of turning the German defeats into wide sectional retirements akin to a rout, but if the weather enables the enemy to stick on some temporary line for the winter, we won t miss much, because wc arc confidentof finishing the job when the spring conies.

Tn yesterday’s and to-day’s fighting the enemy’s disorganisation approached in some places the phase of disintegration. The enemy apparently have no plans except to stick where they stand. They are showing bravery and determination in some sectors, hut there is a wretched moral on others. Perhaps the most striking evidence of deterioration is the number of unburied dead behind the Hindenburg line. The Germans have always been punctilious concerning tho military burials. To-day one canvnot, avoid ghastly sights of decomposing Germans. Tho Hindenburg line itself is muddy and dirty. Its immense strength and vast system of dugouts tunnels and concrete emplacements are marked by stinks and abominations from decomposition and decay of the proud Kaiser’s vain-gloriou s force.