DRAMATIC CHARGE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 286, 12 May 1915, Page 6

DRAMATIC CHARGE.

FIGHTING AT LA BASSEE. AN UNKNOWN HERO. On Thursday, February 11, and Kiiday, the 12th,'the lack of serious action on our front, continued (writes the English ollieial war correspondent, "E.ve■witness") 1 . There was on both days a certain amount of shelling of points near the centre of our line, and on the right our trench mortars (lid considerable execution on Friday.

On Saturday our gusis on the right registered several hits 011 a bridge and our line 011 the east of Givenchy was pushed forward somewhat to a more favorable position. On the extreme right our guns and' infantry co-operated i« an advance made by the French. The German guns were more active than usual against our centre and left.

ATTACKS AND COUNTER-ATTACKS, j On Sunday, ihe 14th, the C4erman guns I maintained a heavy fire along the greater part of our front. About 7 a.m. the enemy attaeked our line a little to tl-e south of the Ypres-Comines Canal, and carried a short length of trench. This slight success encouraged them to make a second attack about 3 p.m. on the trenches to the south of their first objective. Here, too, they captured a small portion of our line, but on the. night of the 14th-15th a counter-attack was organised, and the enemy driven out of all the trenches captured in the second assault, though he still remained in possession of a trench about 80 yards in length which had been captured in the morning. In this fighting we took 13 prisoners, most of whom belonged to the 1914 class and appear only just arrived in the field. During the following night, that of the loth-lGth, another counter-attack took place, and we regained tho whole of our line.

Nothing of importance occurred during the day of the lath. Our heavy art'llery made some good shooting on the right; one shell landed full in a trench, and is believed to have destroyed some 50 yards of it.

Some, further details of the recent fighting in the La Bassee area are vow available. It will be remembered that on February 1, after recapturing a trench which the" Germans had taken from us a few hours before, we gained by successive attacks two posts on the canal bank. As a matter of fact, one of these had been taken from us a short time before, and was not a Gorman post, as stated in the letter of February 2.

A DANGEROUS MOMENT. In the first rush on the nearest work one of those unforeseen but dramatic incidents occurred which often imperil the best kid schemes. As the stomr.ng party was on the point of dashing forward, just at the moment when deiav might have been fatal—for it might just have given the enemy, who wc.-c much shaken by our artillery fire, time to recover—a man dropped a box of hand grenades, some of which detonated. For one moment there was bewilderment and some hesitation, no one quite knowing what had happened. Fortunately the officer who was leading the storming party rushed ahead and his men followed him and carried the enemy's position at the point of the bayonet with very slight loss.

CONSPICUOUS GALLANTRY. During this fight one of our men showed the most conspicuous gallantly. Charging ahead of his comrades, be took up his position on a mound and (shot several of the fleeing Germans at pointblank range as they ran past him. He then ran up to a barricade where two of the enemy were manning a machinegun and kept tliem at bay until the rest of our men came up and captured it. FROM DUG-OUTS TO DEATH.

In this quarter our infantry have gained an ascendancy over the enemy, which was well known in the next series of encounters which took place among the brickstacks on the Oth. During the bombardment previous to the assault the Germans took refuge underground in their (lug-outs, and our assault v:as so well timed and so sudden that when they emerged from their burrows they found our infantry on top of them. The result was never in doubt. Th.we who showed fight were at once bayonetted; but many, recognising the hopelessness of resistance, t«irew away their arras and surrendered, some crying for mercy and offering their watches, monsy, cigars, or fruit in order to buy their lives. One German officer was bayonetted as he was telephoning—presumably for reinforcements, and four Germans were killed by one of our men, who was arm,"! only with a shovel, as they were trying to escape past him down a track. Among the spoils of war captured was a large amount of dum-dum ammunition and many cartridges in which the bullets had been reversed, with their bases outward. It is stated that when charging forward in this attack our stormers maintained their dressing almost as if cn parade.