WAVES OF EXCITED MEN

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 2 June 1917, Page 2

WAVES OF EXCITED MEN

RATTLE OF MACHINE-GUA'S AS THEY CHARGE.

The following remarkable extract

from a letter written by the late Captain W. P. Kelly, of the Fusilecrs, who died of wounds, gives a poignant des. cription of scenes on the battlefield: — "Eyes were now being turned towards the officers. The signal was given, and over went those waves of men —shouting and yelling like, overjoyed beings bursting their bonds For a moment nothing seemed to happen, but only for a moment, for in forty or fifty seconds the German guns of all calibres put up terrifying curtains or barrages—one just on our wire, another just behind our front line, and others further back

"The fumes were suffocating, though lachrmyatory shells were not used, and fragments of iron and steel were hurtling through the air in all directions. It seemed that no living thng would live for long. 'And this was not all, for the rattle of perhaps a hundred machine-guns and thousands of rifles vrould be heard as the ground was swept, in zones. 2s T ot much chance of living through that. "Yet on they went in their waves, the lines growing smaller as they progressed, but the original formation was unchanged. Where a gap in the lines was made the interval was soon made up, the flanks drawing in; and the right of the foremost waves has reached the enemy's lines, and on the German para pet can clearly he seen the many figures silhouetted, here they stand for , many minutes throwing bombs they carried, regardless of the target they are presenting "They pass from view as the succeeding waves cover them. They arc working up the German trenches, bombing those dugouts which have withstood our shells. The rear waves pass over the ridge. The crack of the bombs is heard in the German lines, and little groups arc working in and out of the maze of trenches on the hillside. The rear waves pass over the late 'No

Man's Lan,' and push on to their objective over the ridge. Many of the enemy can be distinguished running up the winding" communication treneTies "Omo, bolder + hnn other, hold on. and fjo-i.f- v'ty, fi v ,; r <Tyev?dr>s."