LATE NEWS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 132, 6 February 1915, Page 3

LATE NEWS.

UNDERGROUND WAR

NIGHT ATTACKS

PROGRESS OF FIGHTING IN THE TRENCHES.

A correspondent for the American press, writing from northern France at the; end -of . December, stated:-

. Night attacks have-.become the sole method cf making an advance i r , this underground war,- as-ail attempts to assault the positions in the daytime fail before, the ten fie -lire and machine gun-fire.

■ When .night falls the .artillery usually. ceases fire, and .all becomes momentarily silent. .Then begins the task of relieving the men in the dugcuts. Companies and battalions which are about to take .a turn on the firing line warily approach the serpentine parallels leading to .the advanced trenches. .

RELIEF READY TO ADVANCE. The first platoon advances and makes its way through the zigzag sunken path to a trench out. of which.the soldiers, who have been there in .nost cases forty-eight hours, make an exit covered with mud from head to foot. Ambulance men follow >Ait of the ditches, with the. wounded borne on their shoulders, as stretches are unable to pass through the narrow parallels. Shortly after the opt ration of relief has been completed tho new occupants c;i the 1/rene.hes, who have been refreshed by a rest in the rear, start a movement. A scouting party, generally composed of live or six volunteers, leaves the trench to reconnoitre. Each man is armed with a revolver and a rifle, a bayonet and a. pair of shears. Creeping flat they proceed in a direct line toward the German trenches, their movements being as slow and as silent as possible, because the slightest noise brings fortk a fusilade of bullets. Scouts of ten succeed in. evading the German sentinels, and cy; the wire entanglements in front of ,he German trenches, thus preparing tc 3 way for a general attack before daw... Those left of them who return to the Allies' trenches make a report of the result of their operation. Then a whispered command passes along and a company clambers out and makes its way crouchingly in an advance. If the company reaches the vicinity of the German position without discovery and before the opposing machine guns can be brought into play, the men leap into and capture the trench at the point of the bayonet.

CAPTURED TRENCHES , FORTIFIED. 1

When prisoners are taken by the French they are grouped imder a guard at one end of the trench while half o fthe attacking force, witSh enternching tools, hurriedly builds -up an earthen shelter at the rear of tbie captured trench and consolidates the position against a possible counter-attack. The other hah" of the force opens fire on the Germans in the nest line of trenches. A gain of sometimes fifty and sometimes 100 yards is made in this way during the night. Young soldiers going for the first time into the trenches declare, that the work is extremely enervating, but they .soon become accustomed to their surroundings. Their excitement when. leaving the trenches to attacfc the. (Gfirman/s soon I'e/sqlves itself, they; say, into a peculiar calmness. Each soldier, when he sees his opponents, appears to select the man who is making directly for him with a weapon. He takes steady aim with his rifle, and if he misses he dashes forward and engages his man in personal combat.