ENEMY CAUGHT NAPPING.

Taihape Daily Times, 3 December 1917, Page 6

ENEMY CAUGHT NAPPING.

GREATEST SECRET OF WAR.

SUPERIORITY IN EVERY ARM

LONDON, November 22

Describing the attack on the Hindenburg line on Tuesday morning, Mr Philip Gibbs, says: The enemy had the surprise of his life when our troops assaulted him at dawn, without a preliminary shot. The belt of his hideously strong wire was still intact, but the tank smashed the wire, enabling our men quickly to attack the Germans in their own trenches. I regard this attack as the most sensational and dramatic episode of this year’s war. It was brilliantly imagined, and the bestkept secret of the war. Although the troops facing us showed signs of being uneasy and suspicious, the High Command never dreamt of such a blow The enemy could not guess this mighty unorthodox plan. The Germans had withdrawn many guns from this quiet sector, but until the wire had been cut had every right •to believe themselves safe* They were not aware of the great number of tanks, which were nightly crawling along the roads, and hiding daily in copses beyond Peroune and Bapaume. The officers directing the operations had an anxious time, as it was a most audacious venture, depending entirely upon surprise Past attacks against uncut wire have always meant death to the infantry. The destruction of wire had previously been the artillery’s work. We caught the enemy on the hop. The first they knew of the attack was when the tanks were advancing and smashing the wire, crawling over the trenches, and nosing forward with gun-fire and machine-guns playing from their sides The Germans -were aghast and dazed Many hid in dug-outs and tunnels, or surrendered Only the bravest manned the machine guns and sniper’s posts. TJ4a tremendous bombardment from our lines added to their terrors. Our platoons swarmed behind the tanks, trudging through thistles, cheering and shouting. The German artillery feebly answered our shells, their gun positions being smothered by the fire of all our batteries. The Hermans were caught like rats in a trap. It was their black day. Our men felt the? thrill of this dramatic adventure, so different from previous attacks according to stale formulae, and preceded by ferocious shell fire.

It seemed queer to bo once again on the southern roads, crossing the Somme battlefield and the great tract of country beyond where the retreating Gormans blew up the villages, and approaching a new battlefield. It was strange, after the shellholes of Passchendaele, to notice the absence of mud craters. Brown earth showed the assembly trenches dug in the night for the attackers’ field and heavy guns. The firing was intense, and the bombardment was in full view of the astonished enemy. The gun flashes were visible miles along our front, through the white morning mists. Having left Tpres, neighbourhood, where it appeared we had most of our guns, it was astounding to see so many batteries here,.

Hardly a shell came k over. We saw only about a dozen burst near our batteries, Shrapnel burst over our

line in the advance, but with nothing like the intensity in the battles for Passchcndaele. The enemy clearly was weak in artillery. A battalion of Ebyal Fusiliers gained their objectives without a casualty. Several country battalions suffered light losses, mostly from machine-gun bullets. The casualties were few as battles go now. Only 200 walking wounded had reached the southernmost dressing station, by 11-in the morning. The prisoners here were Brunswick men, mostly old, belonging to the 20th Landwehr Division. Some of our ambulances drove within a few hundred yards of the battle to rescue the fallen. One of the wonders of the day was the work of our airmen. Some were flying so low that they seemed to make a breeze over my helmet. The enemy was stone dead in the air, and thus was caught napping both in earth and sky. : ■