IN THE WEST

Taranaki Daily News, 17 August 1915, Page 5

IN THE WEST

THE HOOGE SALIENT. INCIDENT,S Oi' THE FIGHT. A BRILLIANT FEAT OF ARMS. Received August 10, 10 p.m. •London, August 15. lleuter'a correspondent at tlie British Headquarters describes the success at Hooge on .Monday, and savs it was due to the magnificent co-operation of the artillery, and the splendid spirit of lilt; infantry. The British guns were undoubtedly superior. They blew the enemy entanglements skyward and made frequent breaches in tile parapet. These splendid results heartened the men for tne attack, which was arranged for between three and four in the morning. At the exact moment the men swarmed the parapets in a surging stream that nothing could stop. The Germans, paralysed by the incessant sliellfire, were unable to seriously resist, and the British, after a little bayonet work, quickly captured the first line. The Germans were disinclined to fight and t#»k to their heels. Many sheltered in dug-outs some of which were twenty feet deep, and these were promptly finished with bembs, dropped by passing bombers, each of whom was supported by a bayonet man. A sergeant who noted the position of a trench mortar, rushed thither, toppled headlong over the parapet, lost his ritle, and fell flat on his back in the bottom of a trench. A sentry was on the point of throwing a bomb when the sergeant rose up and dealt him a mighty kick in the ribs. A "Tommy" then arrived and bovonetted the • sentry. • Elsewhere a German officer,'with a revolver in each hand, emerged from a dugout, and shot two Tommies, but a third pinned the officer with a bay r onet. Scores of Germans were later on heard knocking in the dug-outs. The explosions of the heavy shells covered the entrances, temporarily burying the men, who were dug out, and whom the British prisonvred. A large mine crater was used as a shelter for massing reserves, and in this one hundred surrendered, while four hundred dead were strewn around. The total German losses in the engagement numbered three thousand. Three of the captured officers, who were wearing iron crosses, were gentleness itself compared with the previous burly Prussians, and resembled clerks or schoolmasters. Boots and limbs were everywhere projecting from the floors of the trenches, and it is difficult to imagine how men lived under such conditions.

Many lighti.v wounded Tommies refused to report to the doctors, so as not to miss the finish of a scrap unparalleled for daring. A party of engineers sallied out at daylight, and erected entanglements in front of the captured trenches, and expressed indignation on discovering that the Germans had chipped and reversed their bullets, had sawed bayonets, and used incendiary bullets.

PATHANS AT YPRES. Til KIR UNSWERVING DEVOTION. London, August lj. An officer with the Indian headquarters, describing the Lahore Division's operations round Ypres on April ihith, states that the 40th i'athans liad their lirst experience of shell lire while marching round the moat south of Ypres. The firing was particularly heavy but many shells fell into the water or hit the walls, doing no damage. The men cheered each successive miss. Suddenly a shell dropped in the middle of the Yusufzui con:fpany, which was absut ;he centre of the column, causing 23 casualties. The regiment moved on unperturbed, with scarcely a paune. The JulUnier Brigade had three shells dropped in its midst, but continued. The asphyxiating gas for fiitvi yards so affected their eves as to incapacitate the men (rum using their rifles. Sonic time during the advance Colonel Rendick, of the 10th Pathans, was mortally wounded. The adjutant dragged him to a ditch, where lie lay till dusk. His last thoughts were with his regiment. When placed on tile stretcher he said, "Send two of my Pathans with me. If 1 die on the way to the hospital 1 should liks them with me." The majority of the machine-gun delachment was hit and the guns were held up. A Sepoy named Mun'klitiara, who was sheltering in a small ditch in the advance, volunteered to go hack and bring a gun. He had twice to cross a space of iiO yards swept by an enblading machine-gun and rifle lire, but succeeded and returned under a hail of bullets, carrying the gun. 'J'he Sepoy ' Najikhan, of the 129 th Baluchis, volunteered to carry a message under the heaviest shell and rifle lire. He had scarcely gone a quarter of the distance when he was hit by a hit of shell, baillv wounded, and almost knocked out, but he managed to crawl on and deliver the lues-age. Fifty Connaught Rangers and sixty of the Mancc-.ter R. giiaont, small partie- of the -Kith l'nthai.s, and 47th, Oth. and li!Hh Raluchis advanced nearly a mile over open ground. AYit'i greatly reduced numbers they got within a fee; yards of the German line, when they were met by pni-om.u:. gas. They were half suffocate,!, vet he'd their ground for a terrible twelve hours (ill reinforements relieved them. The uallan'ry of the streteher-bcarer? in even- action cannot be too highly pr-ii-el. Whether Sepoy or the humbler Kahnr, they v:eiv never known to shir]; danger.

CRMETKRIKS IX FRANCE. Times and Sydney Sun Services, London, Au.su.-1 l.'i. The French Rill fti' the establishment of national war <■■ ineteiirs pro 1 , ides fur the bodies of ii'licd soldiers leniuoriiri!v buried a.\ the front, also in the interior, 1 ein? exhumed and interned at the cn=t of t.'ie FRENCH OFFICIAL REPORT. Paris. August l->. A communique states: There were particularly heavy artillry duels at Soiiclte/, PioelitK'Ourt. B:'ause]our. I.eiutrev and Re'llnn. We e\nlo.M a mine northward of Puisalene. and pci-unied (lie crate' after a fierce linn.l-to-1iß.7vl s'rnzgV. Nineteen aeroplane-- kimhariied German works and denots in the vallov of Spa da (near St Mihiell, and dropped 1 Oft shells upon the objects aimed at. All returned safely. BELGIAN PRIEST IMPRISONED. London, August It. The commandant at Charleroi lias sentenced a priest to two years' hard labor for ren'l'n r ? to his parishioners particulars of German crimes in BelEmm