HUNS COPY HAIG.

Taihape Daily Times, 11 March 1918, Page 6

HUNS COPY HAIG.

SPORTS BEFORE ATTACK.

'iiio recent series ol attacks on our

tx-e.ici.es ou vveisii Ridge, south of caa~u*a.i, ana eisewaeie, had been careiuny elaborated. According to prisoners, the troops employed had been specially trained for it, writes Harold Ashton.

An early assault by over-exuberant Germans came to a bad end. They over-ran their mark, and, being surrounded, threw up their hands and surrendered. They turned out to be an assault detachment of the 3rd Battalion of Riflemen. They were all brisk young men of under 30. Flushed by recent successes in Italy, they were full of fire and fight. They had trained hard behind their lines, playing football, wrestling, and indulging in all manner of field sports to get fit for their assaults. They were told before they set out on their adventure that they would meet with very stiff opposition. They had to make a quick swoop on a front of a mile and a-quarter of our trenches, and their officers informed them that the men opposed to them were the pick of a new English division.

They were led by a machine-gun detachment of one N.C.O. and eight men suporte by one or more assault detachments of about the same strength. They worked their way across No Man's Land during the artillery preparation to a point within bombfng range, and formed up at a pre-arrang-ed signal. The machine-gun detachment moved forward with eight ma-chine-guns to cover the rush. After a ■heavy volley they leaped into our trenches with their bombs hoping thus to overcome all resista. ce, but their plan did not "come off," and the young Hun riflemen have had to change their occupation.