The Western Front.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 266, 20 April 1915, Page 5

The Western Front.

THE BATTLE OF NEUVE CHAPELLE. A VIVID DESCRIPTION, •TERRIBLE SLAUGHTER BY WORCESTER*}. Received April 10, 7 p.m. London, April IS. Details of the Neuve Ghapehe battle emphasise the terrible character of the British artillery fire. The .ground quaked as if smitten by, a titan's hammer. Dense smoke hung over the German trenches, and sickening lyddite fumes were wafted back over the British trendies. The Germans were totally oblivious of the British intention to attack, and! bodies of the enemy were blown into fragments, the upper half of a German officer's body being blown into one of our trenches. Germans found alive nearer the trenches were, half demented, surrounded by a welter oi dead and dying. Two German officers gallantly worked a machine-gun until they were bayoneted. Neuve Chapelle looked as if it had been struck by an earthquake, streets being thrown out of alignment, and the scene being one of utter chaos. At Neuve Chapelle the Middlesex regiment suffered terribly in the entanglements. From their starting-point they left a deep lane of dead and dying 120 yards long. Three times they tried to burst through, tlieir hands being cut and torn by the barbed wire. Eventually they- had to lie down among the, dead until the artillery cleared the entanglements. The Worcesters had a. fine scrap in the orchards with bayonets. They charged the Germans up and down the muddy fields like terriers after rats.

The German counter-attack was a ghastly business, being ill-timed and illprepared. The Bavarians advanced in column against the Worcesters, whose twenty-one machine guns opened fire. The column was advancing shouting one moment, and the next they lay writhing in a convulsed heap of bodies, the wounded seeking cover ■'behind the ramparts of the dead. Our shells ploughed up a cemetery, and broken coffins and long-buried remains wore scattered on the surface, the bodies of the slaughtered Germans lying athwart the tombs. At points where entanglements held up-our advance the German machine-guns dealt out devastation. The first lines of the Gharwa'is were withered by a fearful blast of fire. On their left the second battalion of Leicesters got through, using hand gn-;;-ades; they swept along the German trenches and effected a junction witli the marooned Gharwaiis, whose first line of officers were nearly all killed. The Scottish Rifles lived up to Lucknow and Spion Kop traditions, and fought with desperate valor. They lost all their officers but,one, who, with 150, were all that answered the battalion roll call.

A SURPRISE ATTACK. j GERMANS DRIVEN FROM STRONG i POSITION, BRITISH SUCCESS NEAH YPRES. Paris, April 18. Official: Details of the capture of Bois Brule, in the Champagne district, during March show that a German Guards regiment occupied a strong defensive position in a wood, the foremost French trench being 100 yards distant. A French regiment surprised the defenders of a trench 300 yards long, and killed all except three, who were taken prisoners. A general attack took place next day on all sides which lasted all day, we being completely successful. iWe occupied the wood where several hundred corpses were counted. The following morning the Germans made a strong counter-attack, wearing Algerian blouses taken from our dead. The ruse failed. and withering machine-gun fire decimated the attackers, who had hundreds killed. Our troops fought with magnificent dash, having learned that the Guards tortured the wounded. As a result, when the battle was over, twothirds of the Guards were destroyed, while we had three hundred killed. We .advanced half a mile on a 050 yards front. Amsterdam, April IS. An official message from Berlin states that the British blew up a German position south-cast of Ypres north of the canal . The British were driven out ,of one crater but still occupy three. The battle still continues.

NOTES BY "EYE-WITNESS/' PESSIMISTIC FEELING IN GERMANY SOLDIERS DISTRUST THEIR OFFICERS. Received April 19, (i p.m. London, April 19. "Eye-witness" says the Germans at St. Hubert on Thursday for some reason displayed the white flag, and lowered it on finding no desire on the part of our troops to communicate. A battalion accounted for fifteen German snipers in two days. According to a deserter, the enemy's bread ration consists of one loaf daily amongst four. Letters received by German soldiers from relatives are increasingly pessimistic. They state that the officers bohave with studied truculence. This i? borne out by the use of the eat o' nine tails, which is well established. One of the, captured Ncuve Chapel le prisoners stated that twenty men were digging trenches when the subaltern in charge suddenly produced a revolver a>>d declared lie would blow out the brains of the first idle man he saw.

In consequence of a general mistrust the men do not exchange grievances for fear their grumbling will reach the ours of their seniors. Outward forms of discipline are uir/e----liablu. In the trenches when an officer passes the men must .spring to attention and remain at the "shoulder arms" lor possibly a quarter of an hour.

The German confidence lias diminished, but is only destroyablc by defeat, w'aich can neither be explained nor hidden. Such a defeat might possibly have an immediate and overwhelming effect on the whole nation that would be decisive.

TURNING THE TABLES. Received April 19, 10.25 p.m. Paris, April 19. Official: Our artillery stopped an attack on the trenches at Bois de St. Marte, in the Aisne Valleyy A subsequent bayonet charge inflicted serious losses on the enemy.