AT GRIPS WITH PETS OF "HOLY WILLIE."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 194, 25 January 1915, Page 6

AT GRIPS WITH PETS OF "HOLY WILLIE."

DEADLY BAYONET CHARGE. A TORRENT OP GIANTS.

Ibe putting to flight of the Kaiser's pets after a terrible hand-to-hand fight w told by a corporal of a Liverpool regiment now in hospital at Brighton, it was another of their impudent attempts to surprise us," he says. "vVe had been having it quiet for some davs except for their artillery, and we didn't expect anything out of the common until we detected signs of big bodies of troops moving on our left front We manned our rifle pits and made ready to receivo them. ' "They came on like a great bio. stone-finished wall, and when we opene? hre we fairly made the chips fly off at the corners. We found thev were the Irussian Guards, and it was evident that they were going to attack in force so more of our troops were moved up' including two battalions of our own Guards-the Irish and the Scots. Our job was to cover their advance with our rifle fire, which we kept up until our own Guards got into the direct line of fire when we had to stop. We had a fine view of the fight. _ "We saw the Prussian Guards marching steadily on to come to grips, with our chaps going out to meet them.' Thev fired at each other for quite a lon'., time, and then the order to use the bayonet must have been given, for we saw our Guards spring to their feet and dash into them. There was a terrible hand-to-hand fight for nearly an hour. We saw our khaki uniforms hopelessly mixed up with the blue of the. Prussians, and then there was a period when the one gave place to the other so quickly that you couldn't sav at any moment which was on the outside. Bayonet crossed bayonet, and clubbed rifles met in violent concussion. "Men went down never to rise .■>"-in, but at last we saw a thin trickle of Prussians running back towards their own line. Gradually the volume increased until it became a torrent of giants running away, and then we knew that the Kaiser's pets were 3ick of it and were going home to tell Holv Willie that they had met their match. The surprisers had been surprised."