COLDSTREAM GUARDS

Nelson Evening Mail, 23 September 1916, Page 5

COLDSTREAM GUARDS

AN HEHOIC CHARGE.

INTO A MACHINE GUN INFERNO

GERMANS' TERRIFIED FLIGHT.

(Australian and &.Z. Association

LONDON, Sept, 22.

Mr Philip Gibbs gives a thrilling story of the fight of the Guards on the 15th . They faced most difficult ground and particularly strong- forces of the enemy.-. For the first time in history the Coldstream Guards charged in line. Behind them *were the Grenadiers, and then the Irish. They had not gone 200 yards before they came upon an enfilade fire of ma°*ed machine trims.

Men fell, but the line was not broken, and they closed the ranks and swept forward. The grey-coated Germans, ter-ror-stricken, jumped from, pits and shell craters and fled. \,

The Guards kept on until they reached the second line trenches with entanglements, machine gun posts, and ibombers.

They took the trenches bv frontal attack, but many fell in face of blasts from machine guns. The Germans defended themselves to the death. It was a battle of bombs against bayonets. The Irish Guards now joined the Coldstreams and Grenadiers, and all advanced until they were 2000 yards from the starting point. Then it was necessary to call a halt, so many officers and men having fallen. The British on the right having been held up, the Guards were exposed on the flank. The temptation to go further was great. The Gei*man infantry were on the run, and were dragging their guns away, but the machine gunners kept their posts to safeguard the rout, so the Guards wisely decided to dig in. Tlie Germans launched counter-attacks throughout the night, but they were annihilated;