BRETONNEUX WON BACK.

Taihape Daily Times, 17 June 1918, Page 6

BRETONNEUX WON BACK.

AUSTRALIANS PROMINENT. How the town of Villers-Bretonneux iwas won back from the Germans as the result of a counter-attack by the British and Australians on April 24 is thus related by the special correspondent of the Morning Post, writing on the following day:

"The result of the almost constant fighting around Villers-B'retonneux since yesterday morning is that we appear to have taken back the town and inflicted a very severe defeat on the four German divisions engaged, ■At one time yesterday they held a rather deep bow-shaped front west of the town, its rim touching the edge of Aquenne Wood, as the eastern j third of Alb Wood is called. Our counter-attacks at ten o'clock last night, in which English land Australian battalions shared the honours, drove the majority /of the iGerman assault troops back through VillersBretonneux to the vicinity of their former defences, and secured over eight hundred prisoners. The ground in the village and on both sides is literally covered with bodies. This is a hackneyed expression, but no other describes the enormous enemy losses. English and Australian officers agree that they have never .Been dead strewn as thickly on any fcattle field. "It was in this battle that British and German tanks met for the first jtime, and the victory ours. The German tanks led the attack, swinging on the town from the north-east and from the south, and in their wake came infantry with their machineguns and heavy mortars and light artillery." < ENEMYY THKOWN INTO V CONFUSION. After describing how ihe Germans gained their initial success and took the town.after a heavy gas-shell bombardment and in a thick mist, which Screened the tanks, the correspondent continues-.' —"Our counter-attack at 10 o'clock came as a complete surprise It was made by Australian troops, together with some English including the Berkshires and Northampton, and it enveloped the town on the north and south. Save for a short barrage thdre was no The Germans were busy preparing to continue their advance at dawn, and when our men fell on them they were utterly confused. The gunners apparently did not know what was happen- J ing and it was impossible to put down ) stny kind of a protective screen of ehell without destroying their own people.

"The English and Australians fought their way with the bayonet into the western ousMrts fo Villers Bretonneux and along the straight streets, clearing wrecked houses with bombs and surrounding machine-gun posts at the corners. They had every •little light for this work —the moon Ihiad: been ..advertised' 'but failed jioi appear, and slight Tain was falling. Eoekets were flaring against the sky, an there were other obvious signs of German distress. In some places we -r?ere delayed owing to darkness, but although contact was not always maintained between different units, each group of infantry continued to kill Germans on its own. In the town itself 650 prisoners were taken during the night, with two light field guns and four minethrowers. STILL FIGHTING AT DAWN. "South of the town the troops swinging across the country lanes had to fight hidden snipers and machine guns in & deep railway cutting. All these pockets were not cleared by the time they reached the old trenches east of the town, and they suffered somewhat from renewed fire at their backs. Hard hand fighting continued in several places for the greater paTt of the night. When morning came Our men were still fighting in Villers Bretonneux in a systematic house to louse search which, yielded little groups of fugitives and their arms. Two Berkshires alone made 200 prisoners, and one party of Yorkshires netted 60; the Durhams and Northampton also had their share in the mopping up. . "At noon to-day Villers-Bretonneux appeared to be clear of the enemy. We bold all of the town and the southern approaches, and the oniy troublesome spots are isolated machine-guns dug in along the thje jrailfway, The er4emy tried several times to regain his bold on the town and Germans kept dribbling out of Warfusee and Marelcave in artillery formation only to be swept away by shell. It was almost impossible to move in some places •without stepping on German dead.

THE'TRANSPORT PROBLEM. A correspondent, writing in an English magazine, mentions some of tiie [ difficulties encountered by the attackers when advancing after a successful bombardment of the enemy's line: "The essence of war,' 'says the writer, "lies in the conveyance of a certain mass of men and material to a certain point in a certain time. That side which accomplishes this operation most successfully will win on every occasion. A tract of country that has been successfully bombarded —and even' more if it has been for some time . unsuccessfully ombarded —is in very j truth blown off the map. All those of j its features, contours alone excepted, I that would appear upon a map have disappeared, and their place been taken by a sea of earth. Such a terrain resembles nothing so much as a rough seascape turned solid—or, whadt is worse and more frequent, into mud of varying degrees of stickiness. Imagine such a belt of country from two to five miles wide, in which the shell craters or wave-troughs actually touch, and are of depths varying from two to a dozen feet; seamed everywhere with an intricate network of ragged ditches, which were once trenches; and consider the problem of driving one single motor bus across it, or a motor J car, or a horse-drawn ammunition waggan, or a caTt or a wheelbarrow! r Suppose that the line has been broken on a front sufficiently wide to 'let the cavalry through, and that anything from ten to thirty thousand of theni

get through. In either case the guns,

men, and horses must be fed. The shell of an eighteen-pounder—to take the lightest and most mobile type — weighs with its cartridge some 231 b. The gun can fire twenty rounds a minute; its moderate daily expenditure would be 150 to 200 rounds —ten tons of metal for a battery. The horses must be foraged;' another ton of oats alone. It can carry with it in its own vehicle one day's forage and rather less than one day's ammunition, and it occupies a quarter of a mile of road space." But, the writer point out, cavalry alone is not sufficient, and division after division of infantry must be poured in, and field howitzers at least, j "with a shell alone weighing 351 b," I brought forward to deal with fortified localities, improvised field works, and 1 areas that the low trajectory of the eighteenpounder cannot reach. "Every hour of respite given to the retreat means more and heavier guns to break down the defences that will have been organised during the breathing space. Ordnance of a calibre larger than five inches —and this includes practically all seige and heavy artillery—can only be pulled and suppied for any but the shortest distance along roads, and metalled roads at that. The eighteen-pounders : themselves were unable to advance on the Somme until tracks had been levelled for them by pioneers and working parties."