BROODSEINDE BATTLE.

Taihape Daily Times, 28 November 1917, Page 6

BROODSEINDE BATTLE.

ENEMY ATTACK^.rORESTALLED. ADVANCE TO_CBEST OF EIDGE. NEW ZEALANDEES ENGAGED. The attack oiTThT slopes of the crest of the Passchondaele Gheluvelt ridge on Oetober 4 encountered five enemy divisions waiting to advance in r attempt to drive the British _ off the ridge. The New Zealand division took part in this attack, captnring the village of Gravenstafel and the neighbouring Abraham Heights. What has made the success assume proportions larger than we dared to dream is that the enemy himself had planned a tremendous attack, for which, in addition to the troops normally in the fighting line, he had brought up five new divisions, of which three were in the front line of attack, the correspondent of the London Times wrote: The intention was to recapture Zonnebeke and sweep us back and wrench from us all the Polygon Wood aTea down to the high ground upon the Menin Koad. The Germans were to attack at seven o'clock by our time. Well, we attacked at sis. It was a little, early, for it was a wild and stormy night, with wind and biirsts of drizzle, and at six o'clock it was still half dark with a thick ground mist. It would have been pleasanter and easier attacking a little later. The Germans had already begun a preliminary bombardment "of much of our line, but it was swept awav in the infinitely greater volume of our own, and our men went over with few losses and no mishap.

At places, according to tales of the wounded, they met the Germans already deploying for attack in advance of their positions, On most of the front, however, he was still in his trenches and shell-holes, assembling and getting ready. Our attack was an uttor surprise. Prisoners tell us they had calculated that we could not be ready for two more days at least. •At some points the Germans fought. Over most of the front they were simply overwhelmed and ran or surrendered as our men came on. If the enemy's prisoners are many, his dead and wounded are vastly more. The prisoners themselves tell it, and never before have we met evidence of such disorganisation in the enemy. Small units and scattered individuals, not only of different regiments, but of different divisions, were mixed up* Single units of ours have taken prisoners from as many as four different divisions.

The battle had for its centre the neighbourhood of the Broodseinde cross-roads, on the crest above Zonnebeke. "I do not think any previous battle has been so perfectly organised down to the smallest detail," the correspondent of the Morning Post W rote —"each victory gives us. fresh knowledge for the preparation of the nest —and it proceeded like clockwork from the moment the wonderful barrage laid the course for the first waves of infantry at dawn Most significant of all was the attitude of the enemy, Nowhere do we appear to have encountered extremelv serious resistance, I heard from many of the wounded from different parts of the battle front the same stories of Germans running forward to surrender or trying to escape There was less fighting in redoubts and "pill-boxes" than in the attack of a week ago, just as at that time we encountered less resistance than the week before, There were

fewer " pill-boxes,'' The weather was unfavourable but not enough rain fell to cause serious delay, In some places the ground was merely sticky, and only in the valleys did the men have to go slower because of the mud. Half a gale was blowing, and the aeroplanes laboured heavily against ominous banks of clouds when the day broke grey and rather bleak, with a thick rnist hanging over the ridge, and the enemy invisible beyond it.

Our infantry went straight through nearly to the crest at Broodseinde and the upper spurs elsewhere. The only delay was in the region of tattered copses south of Molenaarelsthoek, where machine-guns caused a "brief check. In the cratered fields above Zonnebeke, ou both sides of the Broodseinde road, they found"'" bewildered Prussians in unusual groups; further still they came upon shallow trenches crowded with men, shouldered together with bayonets fixed for the attack. Their descent upon this unexpected assemblage, far greater than any ordinary garrison of the line, was paralysing in its effect The surviving Germans were taken prisoners, Officers and non, commissioned officers, helpless with the rest, handed over their revolvers and ordered the men to lay down their arms. Where a rally was attempted after the first panic the effort was broken with bombs and bayonets. Utter confusion existed in the German lines. The infantry of the Guard wandered into the territory of other t units. Begirnehts overlapped and j were split up. You can imagine the I •scone Of chaos behind the enemy's Hife

K where the staff in charge of this elab- ' orate attack suddenly found their entire organisation of battle crumpled and scattered by this thunderbolt. Our first advance from Zoniiebeke took us about to the crest cf the hill. We had to go up a winding shellpitted road, through ruined houses, past the cemetery that had become a redoubt, and a mill similarly fortified, and across the newly-dug wired trenches designed to hold us from Broodseinde. No serious obstacle was met anywhere. An hour after we began the journey the troops halted at the first goal. In less than an hour later, they were pushing comfortably past the Broodseinde erossiroads, the scene of much bitter fighting three years ago. For the first time since that gallant stand of the "Old Contemptibles" British soldiers looked down into the plain of Flanders from the enemy trenches beyond that spot. -On the left of the battle front the neighbourhood of Poelcappelle and that of Gravenstafel were the principal areas where our troops were taking prisoners and clearing redoubts during the morning. The enemy regiments holding this part of the line were apparently unaware of the impending attack by their assualt divisions further south, but believed that a heavy barrage was to be expected early in the morning. The ground was easy to cross except the valley of the Stroombeek, where the British infantry, after leaving Danzig Farm, had-fo'-'go very slowly through the marsh; 1 tanks did excellent work in tbisvregion, and assisted to capture a_-mambeprof strong points. Poelcappelle was- strongly garrisoned, but the GermSns .-here do not appear to have offered any serious resistance. Prisoners were "coming back from the region of Poelcappelle at the same time that our men were swarming over the Abraham Heights. by Gravenstafel, and rooting iou£ cupants of cellars in the laiijterc-'vil-lages. We had sharpl r f ightingsPTrt~ a group Of (eight concjiefrrjfl ."rdilgSouts, near a demolished f arhr -ciallGd.'Btohs Farm. All the open and undulating" uprtbo-ibhe of a~cer of Passchendaelc Ridge. It 'ha'sobscrlr thoroughly raked by 'fcur considerable remains <}f rrrPoelcappelle still exist, and Gravcns't&fel: irshows signs of having been 'aj^illageyi r ;v "