ITALIAN RETREAT CONTINUES

Taihape Daily Times, 1 November 1917, Page 5

ITALIAN RETREAT CONTINUES

•ft WITH NEW ZEALANDERS. FEAT OP A HEROIC CORPORAL. Describing the fighting on August 5 (at La Basse Ville)' Malcolm Ross, New Zealand’s war correspondent in Flanders, says: Of all the tales of magnificent heroism in this fighting, however, no more thrilling story can be told thhn that of the cool daring and magnificent initiative displayed by a Wellington corporal, * On that morning he was in charge of two sections of his company, and he was specially detailed to attack and capture an enemy machine-gun position that was supposed to be an isolated estaminet on the Warneton side of the village. As soon as our barrage had lifted he led his men forward across the railway line west of La B'asse Ville, only to unexpectedly run up against another enemy ■ machine-gup that was sending.: outba stream of bullets and holdings up the advance of another company operating on his left. Without hesitation he turned his attention to this position; which he attacked, killing several of the crew and putting the others to flight. After this adventure he was able' to get- together only three of hi s men, but undaunted still, he proceeded with them to attack the machine-gun position that was his real objective. To proceed to attack the post from t-he front meant clearly that he and his little remaining band would be wiped out altogether. , The gun was firing continuously The enemy shell-fire was intense. Coolly sizing up the situation, he led his little party* round through- some thistles, and attacked the German position from i the rear: As soon as they got close enough the intrepid quartette threw bombs at the crew ? and immediately the bombs had exploded they rushed it, killed four of the enemy, put the rest to flight, and captured tfie gun and the position. One would have thqught that this was a sufficiently good morning’s work, but it was not enough for the corporal Leaving behind two of his men to clear the post and remove the gun ? he took the other man with him, and wear OTT a reconnoitring expedition as far as our standing barrage would permit, in the direction of Warneton. He afterwards came back to his company and reported, with most valuable information. Throughout the whole of these operations the enemy shells were pounding into the position, and there was the continuous rattle of rifle and machine-gun fire.

THE THIRD WAR CHANCELLOR. The Kaiser has sprung y£t another surprise upon the Fatherland in his replacing of Dr. Michaelis as Chancellor by appointing Baron von Hertaccording to a cable message received since our editorial afticle was written. Von Hertling is not the unknown quantity that his predecessor was, because he has sad experience as the Bavarian Prime Minister. Prior to that he was Professor of Natural Science and Political Philosophy at Munich, before becoming Minister of Foreign Affairs in B’avaria (in 1912). He was also chairman of the Federal Council’s Committee of Foreign Affairs, which Mr Frederick William Wile, Berlin correspondent of the London Daily Mail when the war broke out, has caustically described as “a decorative body invented by Bismarck to make the country believe it had something to say about Foreign Affairs.” Will Hertling go hurtling through things like a meteor or like a Michaelis rocket? ~

Heroic Resistance by Italians