Second Edition. In the West

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIII, Issue 27, 30 September 1915, Page 6

Second Edition. In the West

THE BATTLE’S DIN. [United Press Association.! Paris. September 29. Cavalry play an important part in the offensive in the Champagne. They swept on the enemy like a hurricane after the infantry had cleared the first line. Critics explain that the captures of prisoners during the French advance in the Champagne district were so rapid, and the mombardment had so disorganised the lines, that the German reserves in the centre were caught in the jaws‘of pincers and cut off. General Marohand, the hashoda hero, was wounded seriously, but probably not fatally. A number of French who were wounded in the Champagne district' have arrived. They state that the infantry attack began at noon on Saturday. On the three previous days the big French artillery made an appalling din, day and night unceasingly. “Our leaders on the stroke of twelve cried ‘Forward!’ We shouted like men .possessed, and were out ol the trenches at a single bound. There was hot work in front of ns. where the lads in the first line were doing good business. They were beyond the Bosche trenches, and we doubled to them. Another wounded soldier narrates how a German, at point-blank range, shot a Britisher in the jaws, and then, flinging up' his hands,' shouted, ‘ I surrender.” The wounded man leaped up and put a bayonet through him. saying. “I cannot give friends like that any mercy.”

A wounded corporal said that there had never been hell before Saturday. “L charged with a bombing party of nine, of whom seven were down before we were within bombing distance, but we Jung 130 bombs on the German second hae. The enemy rained grenades on us, and my chum and I were wdumled. We saw piles of German dead farther on, and saw craters wherein a number of Bosches were buried'beneath the earth. We rushed on again, land sighted strong enemy machine guns ini a pit. We dashed on them with the bayonet, and after a stiff fight the enemy survivors shouted Ttamerad’ and threw down their annS. One officer hogged for mercy, saying lie had a wife and children, and offered, money when we spared him. 'Another wounded man said Ids company reached the artillery positions. The gunners and infantry were huddled round the guns holding up thenhands. The French artillery had made them idiots. All kinds of soldiers, old and young, were all possessed of the one idea—to he spared. The Pall Mall Gazette comments 9 11 the sobriety wherewith this gratifying success lias been received. It is a tribute to Britain’s military education. " “We have ceased,” says, tbe paper, '.“to think of war in terms of melodrama.” Recruiting officers, are making a irenewed effort»to stir up'slackers, and great reeruitng rallies are fixed tor Saturday. ‘ Recruiting sergeants admi t that Sir John French’s despatch has clone more in forty-eight hours than all the silver-tongued oratory of tbe country’s leaders. is doing, and there will be the utmost profit from bis outburst of patriotism. An officer of the Gluirkas states that Xouve Ohapelle was trifling compaiecT to Saturday., He lay in the trenches all Friday night, unable t<> sleep owing to tbe awful crash of artillery. “The Gluirkas were simply burning for daylight. The guns gave the German trenches a last ten minutes of hell at six o’clock in the morning, and then, with a hurricane of yells, wo raced for three hundred yards to the trenches, which were practically blotted out. The Thirteenth Bavarians threw down their arms and surrendered all along the line, so we went on to the second line, where the full blast of tbe machine guns met ns. 1 dropped, but the Gluirkas gained the second line.” Wounded soldiers from La Basse are arriving in Glasgow. They pay tribute to tbe manner in which the wounded were cleared from thp front. Hospital trains ran a s regularly as coaches in the Lord Mayor s Show. The first official warning of an offensive was when the attackers paraded ■on Friday and heard Sir -Tnhn French’s stirring' appeal that he relied upon every man to do his utmost. . While the Allies are preparing for another spring campaign critics are of opinion that the enemy effort t-o hold the British and French immobile] while seeking a decision in the East is definitely frustrated. The Germans are now racing a double effort, which has been the prime object of their strategy to avoid. The enemy is likely to uncover a certain portion on his front in order to accumulate large forces at threatened points, and the Allies will not miss the opportunity of attacking the weak points, hence fighting is likely in places not yet mentioned.