CHARGE OF THE GUARDS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 148, 17 November 1914, Page 6

CHARGE OF THE GUARDS.

HACK ?0K THE GUNS. BAYONET WINS TEE DAY. No troops have been more continuously engaged than the Guards since the eii'iii|( aign opened. According to an officer, the Grenadiers, the Coldstrcams, the • V («U and tiie Irish Guards have seen more fighting since Sir John French went inio action cn August tl than any other units of the liritish expeditionary force. "You can say they've dono .magnificently," said this officer to a Daily LM'ail correspondent. "They've ■hardly missed a 'show,'" "show" being ,i!« service slang for engagement. The •Cliuuds are after all for "show" .purposes! In the recent crossing of the Aisne, in particular, the Guards achieved a glorious feat of arms. They were allowed to cross the river by pontoon bridge without having to contend with any "peppering" from the enemy as anticipated. (But no sooner had our cavalry headed by the Scots Grey# begun the crossing 'than a rain of "shrapnel burst upon them from nowhere. All through this campaign the Germans have scored in the vital matter of concealing their artillery; that afternoon t'liey excelled themselves. As a wounded officer in tho RjFjV. remarked, "Wo could only find one of their guns, and there they continued blazing away at our poor fellows. Those who weren't killed outright were drowned. Our cavalry makes rings round them, so th:.y waited especially for the Greys." A stretch of open country a quarter of a, mile long lay immediately ahead of the Guards; then a wood leading up to the heights somewhere along or behind which tho death-dealing German guna lay. The order was given to advance, but though the gallant troops escaped the crowning fortune of falling upon barbed wire, they were received, as was to be feared, by a murderous machine gun fire on approaching cover. The Guards fixed bayonets and charged. They took those guns in five minutes—six of them. They are now in the British lines. The charge created a very necessary diversion, allowing our heavy artillery in turn to enter tho lists. Not until the pontoon bridge had twice more been destroyed, however, were the big German guns silenced—thanks to the admirable reconnoitring work of two airmen. The crossing of the Aisne was then concluded in comparative immunity from shell fire.