IN THE GREAT ADVANCE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1602, 24 August 1916, Page 4

IN THE GREAT ADVANCE.

CHARGE THROUGH HAIL OF

LEAD

Some of the wounded who look pari iu the big British advance in July tell thrilling stories. One wellknown commanding officer of a battalion, who has landed at Southhampton with a hole through one hand and an ugly shrapnel wound in the leg, which he received in the fighting, said: —

“Our fellows reached their objective. They would have got there if hell itself had to he crossed. No soldiers could have been liner than our men, the German machine-guns were sweeping that portion of the front with an absolute hail of lead, ■but our only trouble was to prevent them from charging right into the thick of it before die chosen moment.

“The officers were splendid —all of them. Lieutenant Cliawner, in the teeth of a tornado of lire, dashed across No Man’s I,and at the head of his platoon. No one got through hut Chawner. He found himself face to face with three Germans, whom he promptly threatened with his revolver and made them lay down .their rifles. He took them prisoner and order them hack to our lines. Just then he was knocked over by a shell fragment, with one of the Germans. When he recovered consciousness one of (In* other two Germans was handaging him; the second had vanished. So Chawner thanked him, and marched him hack to our lines.

“Our men marched through (lie raging fire exactly as if on parade. If they had been soldiers all their lives they could not possibly have shown a liner fighting spirit. My battalion, being in one of (In* bad hits, suffered terribly, but (hose who fell, fell fighting like heroes.

The percentage ol‘ <U i ;i <1 lo wounded is smaller than is usual in trench lighting. Mnny light wounds have been received I‘rom shrapnel and rifle mid machinc-gim lire, Iml the good weather and excellent physical condition ol‘ the men mean quick recovery. . There are plenty of examples of the English plegmatic tempera men I. One gunner, lifted into the air hy the concussion of a shell, said after he came down; “I wished they had provided cushions.’’

A corps commander, after all plans were complete for the attack at 7.30 o’clock ki the mroning, said, before lying down to sleep: “Wake me at 7.45. The first reports will be in hv then.”