A SPLENDID CHARGE.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 155, 4 July 1916, Page 5

A SPLENDID CHARGE.

GERMANS DAZED AND DEAFENED. (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) Received 5-30 p.m., July 3. LONDON, July 3. . ilr . Phillip Gibbs says: For a foi tnight the plans were discussed secretly in the mess-rooms. The “Tommies,” watching the arrival of scores of guns, smiled grimly. Everybody " as awar ® that the bombardmnet was preparatory to a great assault. The secret was well kept, and the offensive was begun satisfactorily. It is not yet victory, only the beginning. We are advancing, not easily, but doggedly, and we are capturing strongholds. The German dead are lying thickly in the track of our regiment. The attack was preceded by an attack of trench mortars. Clouds ct smoke were then liberated, hiding the whole line and screening the infantry Only the reserves were visible a minute after. At 7-30 came the mshing sound of rifles and machine&TUlS. The German artillery tried barraging our lines, occasioning a Utt!e difficulty in the earliest attacks Our bombardment flattened their parapets and smashed their entanglements. The British swept forward, cheering, and encountered no resistance, the surviving Germans hiding u their dug-outs, many whereof were died with dead. Some crept out dazed and deafened, and held up their hands and bowed their heads "