“A GLORIOUS VICTORY."

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXX, Issue 60, 6 November 1914, Page 5

“A GLORIOUS VICTORY."

1 .v.;; -- . - FOLLOWING THE FORTUNES OF THREE DAYS’ BATTLE. - A. ■ ■ ■ • ——• (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright, United Press Association) (Received 8.55 a.m.) London, November 5. It is computed that 700,000 Germans endeavored to break the Ypres-Lille line. The battle raged fiercely for three days, each day presenting a different phase. The first was the enemy’s general advance, during which they lost appallingly and succumbed in helpless droves before the British fire. Those who survived were ambushed and fell into concealed pits. The British loss was slight. The second phase was the next day, when there came the storming of the British trenches by overwhelming waves of Germans and fighting in which the British retreated five miles. The losses on both sides were enormous in the hand-to-hand encounters.; The third phase, and the last, on Saturday opened with the recovery of the British, who displayed marvellous endurance in a counter-attack. They bayoneted their way through all the Germans, and pursued them fifteen miles until they‘had achieved a glorious victory. Scene of Appalling Hotter. The British charge resulted in such slaughter that the bodies rose like hedges and impeded the second and third assaults. Battalion after battalion was hurled forward, and the sheer momentuin drove them down to our trenches, outside which we constructed pits twenty feet wide and twenty feet deep. These were covered with branches and loose turf, like those at Bannockburn. The Germans poured into the pits in torrents, calling out pitifully. The scene was one of appalling horror. Many were transfixed on the bayonets of comrades who had previously fallen. Others were shot by friends’ rifles, and occasionally a shell fell into the pit and hundreds in a mass were blown to pieces. Meanwhile the British cavalry annihilated the Germans who tried to step over the bodies in the pits, and bayoneted those who crossed at close quarters. For nearly twentyfour hours the struggle continued. The carnage was one-sided. Superior numbers compelled the British to Retire on the second day. The fighting was only a melee in which chaos was only removed from time to time by successful charges by individual regiments. At dawn on the third day the advance of the British was ordered. Their charge was irresistible, and they swept everything before them. One charge was by the London Scottish, who received their baptism of fire, turning the scales. It was a most gallant event, - ■ ' • Never have the Prussians suffered such horrors, such colossal losses, such irreparable damage as in this straight fight with the British.