AN UNDERGROUND FORTRESS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 221, 27 October 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

AN UNDERGROUND FORTRESS.

2000 GERMANS SAFE. (From W. BEACH THOMAS, with the British Army in the Field.)

An absolute confidence that no power ir. heaven or earth could dispossess them of tleir gains pervade J the German forces up to July Ist. I have heard the faith expressed by prisoners, writes Mr. AV. Beach Thomas, in the "Daily Mad," and had abundant and various evidence of its prevalence; but not till to-day did 1 feel, as well as understand, the material giounds on which 't was based.

Let nnv doubter pay a visit to Ovil-lers-la-Boisselle to-day, and go the rounds with the cleaners and organisers or consolidators of the troops in possession. After a fortnight's work these mvn themselves only just begin to discover what the fortifications mean. In this little country village there is underground shelter and lodging for quite 2000 men. We know it to onr advantage as well as cost. It the enemy choo.-e to shell us there, we can take refuge in caves so deep and snug that, in the hefty phrase of a soldier, s'in. shells falling on the top sound like bees buzzing in the roof . The exaj;geratoti is permissible Even now the wholv. or the system is not investigated. Ihcre are chambers or (ells in this morbid subcutaneous growth so foul that no one has the power or will to penetrate. must be cut off from the system, isolated, put out of reach of the senses. Nevertheless, a great part has been cleaned and d'slnfected and can be visited as one would visit the Catacomb-. I have seen Montauban, Mametz, Kricourt, Boisselle, and some of th i fortified places behind these villages, but none of them is at ill cemparablj witli Ovilliers, and this is my excuse for writing yet again ot the German methods <;i defence. Two days air i we found dynamos and apparatus which supplied the whole of this subterranean acreage with electric light. Corridors between the dwelling-houses and rooms run cvervwhere, under the -hill-proof roof.

Men colli 1, of course, -erp thcruitliout risk. What i- i ire, tli.*v could both -!e p anri fight wi'.hont ner,oii>« strain, however extreme the fig.;*. When, on July Ist, SOU men of a famous brigade ot a famous division seized :nd he'd th.- front lines i:« re. the ni:lier> oi ih<- C'yelopi in the eave- •.-.ere -till i.mvrung. Bombs down the -tair-ca-e, did them no injury. They would till fight or i-v-ape as they nished. or -orn-nd r with due leisure.

MACHIXJvGIN HOISTS. Von mu-t not suppose that these caves only extend behind the line if trench. The chambers in front oi the line are the most notalile, for they are arranged for the attack as well as for the (ioii me. Some, are huilt forward for a distance of about GO yard-, and like a chimney running up from the upright ladder and pulley arrangement for hoisting machine-gun* From i ■•(ore oi such shafts the serpent ro.sH emerge and strike at will. A great amoiini o' wood - 4o|en from the French and Belgjan fnre<t- - !- us: d in the >.tri;<-tnre : and our trno|ifound one unotly-inl lull of -pare biltlding material. V . are now ei. nying II.; heneiit ii thc-o "permanent" preparation.-, Inn llieir very elalioraiion make; ill,, work i:f • onsoluir.iioii a lahotir of Hercules. To rotojv sanitation is in it-el[ a giv.nl task. The < neiuy u hj.» lived there were led wuli supplic cominu from mirth and east. Oi,- -upp!i -. oi which always water i> ih«* nio-f lr.ml.le-. -lie. lIHI-1 I'.' I.roimhl fiolll Hi ■ smith or »< -I The . >plure "i n pta. >\ ev. n i|. h a thoi in la Ire— i- ihi- '"» ~nl\ :i pat lof ili.' -ol her' hoi I, II inii-l mak ■ life an endinabh' linn;' lo Iho men ii pe-M», ion . an,l this mi\ invo!\o .1 n.itei v .tein ino an ill uu lerl -.Km;-

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