GERMANS’ HASTY RETREAT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1305, 1 October 1914, Page 4

GERMANS’ HASTY RETREAT.

HOW THE BRITISH FOUGHT. FEEDING THE REFUGEES. A graphic story of the hasty fight which the Germans had to make after the British turned upon them near Paris, was told by a Times correspondent, who followed on the heels of the Germans. The details, supplied by the TimesSydney Sun cable service, are as follows ; The withdrawal of General French's army from Belgium to the southward of Paris, said the correspondent, will rank as one of the greatest achievements of the British or any other army. “Marching backwards,” he says, “isn’t what the soldier loves. On Sunday, when the great tide began tojsweep the other way, it brought joy to the allied camps. The artillery duel lasted the whole day, the Germans eventually giving ground. “On Monday the great new movement continued, gathering vigour and momentum. Happy British soldiers swung singing through shuttered villages, which had been occupied by the Germans on the previous day, along while reads, through green woods, past many German corpses, and thickets full of dead.

“Iti the evening I slept at a farmhouse in a hamlet where there were only three families remaining. The Germans on Sunday had taken my host’s fodder and horses, for which they gave him receipts. Four officers ordered his wife to prepare dinner for them in the evening. But it wasn't eaten, for the officers were ordered suddenly to retire because the British were coming. The order was instantly obeyed. The officers in their haste left behind them cigar holders, as well as unopened tins of tomatoes and other delicacies. “While I slept long files of British troops tramped forward. OFFICIALS SAVED BY BRITISH. “Reaching Coulommiers I found the doors and windows of the houses broken. I learned that the Mayor and the Chief Constable had refused to find the lew of 100,000 francs imposed by the Germans, and that the Germans had taken them to the outskirts of the town on Sunday with the intention of having them shot. The arrival of the British saved the town officials and the firing party fled.

“When I awoke on Tuesday morning there were more aeroplanes in the sky than I could really count. The noise of their engines was, however, drowned by the boom of cannon. “By five o’clock in the morning I was cycling in the direction of L,a Ferte-Gauchier. On the way I entered a desolated mansion. The place was silent as the grave. The windows and doors were open. BRUTISH FLING FORTH DEATH.

“When the order to advance was given, remembering the lessons learnt in the Boer War, the British swept fiom the trenches in open order. Under a withering fire, and stooping -low, they dashed for the nearest cover provided by hayricks, hedges and boulders. There was a fresh fusillade from their rifles, and then they dash forward again. “Finally, with a fierce cheer, they brought their bayonets into plav in the German trenches, and flung forth death and confusion into the long green German lines. ROUTED IN A HURRICANE. Other details of the German retreat were supplied by a Times correspondent, on September 14th, as follows •—• “There is a hurricane blowing. Rain descends in torrents —rain that lashes the roadways, eating into them and digging deep ruts. Over the sombre fields heavy clouds sweep. Rivulets have

become cataracts and rivers rush turbid and angry.

“This is the France of the great retreat which draws slowly away through the dusk—an endless stream, worn, weary, famished and without ammunition, “Afar off the sound of cannon tells of the battle that continues without ceasing wherever another stand may be adventured. “A wounded soldiers says : ‘They fled as animals flee which are cornered and know it.’

“The roadway is littered with guns, knapsacks, cartridge belts, maxim, even heavy cannon, aud dead —just stacks of men shot, so close that they remain standing.

“Trainload after trainload of allies arrive, and the men are swept toward the weak points of the retreating host. This is the advantage of the battle ground which the allies have chosen. The network of railways is like the network of a spider’s web. All the ends centre upon Paris. “It is possible to thrust troops upon the foe at any point with almost incredible speed. Food and munitions are within an arm’s reach. The Germans, on the other band, are far separated from their base.”