WESTERN ATTACK.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 July 1916, Page 12

WESTERN ATTACK.

BATTLE OF DELVILLE WOOD. HIGHLANDERS GRAND EXPLOITS.. NO SUCH BATTLE EVER SEEN. OALLANT REMNANTS VICTORIOUS. Times Service. Received July 25, 8.15 p.m. London, July 24. The Times' correspondent at Headquarters, writing on .July 21, states: Already operations on the Somme rival those at Verdun. Never was a struggle so fierce, and its intensity promises to increase. Describing the recent German counterattacks in Delvillc Wood the correspondent says: "Wo already know how the Hermans fear the Highlanders, and they have better reason to do so now than ever. There lias been nothing liner in any war than the way the Scotsmen, after four days of unimaginable strain, flung back the enormously preponderating numbers in a last desperate counterattack. "With a gallant handful of South Africans they rose from a hastily-made line, and beat back the nine or ten battalions of fresh German troops. "Longueval forms part of the Delvillc Wood, and the Germans .were immensely -'Lrong, having machine-guns and two Held guns, while they fired at 15(1 yards, point blank range, at our thin line, which was tremendously shelled by every kind of weapon for eight hours. It was worse than anything previously known, ami the South Africans, who had passed through the Scottish lines two days previously to clear Delvillc Wood, were driven back in small bands throughout the day. They dropped into the trench beside the Scots and "waited while 'hell' raged. "At last the enemy's infantry appeared through the wood on all sides, in wave after wave, and before these overwhelming numbers our men fell back to the reserve trench. Here this gathering of fragments and scraps of the battalions, companies and platoons of Scotsmen and South Africans rallied. It was here that this handful counter-attacked and drove back the eaeinv's massed forces through Delville Wood. "Even the shell-shocked wounded, after four days and nights, took the heroic resolution, and somehow went forward with their comrades." A WARM CORNER, DELVILLE WOOD A DEATH-TRAP. TO FRIEND AND FOE. Received July 25, 0.20 p.m. Lodnon. July 21. Mr. Philip Gibbs. writing on J'riiiav. savs that the '•Tommies" call Delville Wood the "Devil's Wood"—and it is a really devilish place. It proved a deathtrap lo the British and Germans. Fighting continues hotly at Delville. also in tlie high wood. At Fourcau:; Wood, lying northwest, the Germans have the advantage of defence. At Delville Wood they placed ma-chine-guns behind a barricade of great tree trunks and sharpshooters were hiding in the foliage. The South Africans had not 'lime to dig before the German guns swept the wends. The troops are now more secure, and the situation at the high wood is urn-hanged. We still hold the wood linking it to Longueval. Thus the high wood is the apex of a salient thrust like a spear head into the German position. AUSTRALASIANS PROVE THEIR WORTH. Paris, July 24. There is an epic struggle at Pozieres, and the Australasians are fighting terrifically. On both sides of the village the British attacked i'rontally, and liand-to-hand lighting continues in the streets and houses, which must be captured step by step. The village is a veritable fortress. The Germans were strongly reinforced and recaptured a portion. A POSITION THAT MUST BE TAKEN. Times Service. London, July 24. Details of the fighting on the Somme show ithat t'hc principal conflicts extend over a front of nearly seven miles from Pozieres, which was recently, the centre of a shallow German salient, the capture of which was essential in order to facilitate the advance on the Thiepval plateau to Guillcinont. an extremely strong position which must bf taken before Comhles is threatened. Pozieres and Guillcinont practically constitute powerful bastions in the present German line. AERIAL ACTIVITr. Paris, July 24. A French communique states: German aeroplanes bombed Lunevilje, wounding one person. Lieutenant Chiput -brought down nis eighth German at Fresnes-en-Woevre. Our aviators dropped eight bombs on the station at Conllans, forty on the barracks at Vigneulles, and twenty-five on the aerodrome at Dienzo. THE GERMAN REPORTS. Berlin, July 24. The War Office states that the engagement at Pozieres cost the British heavily in dead and wounded. London, July 24. A German communique says that the English attacks at Thiepval and Guillcinont were carried out by detachments of eleven English divisions, several of which had been hastily -brought from other fronts. The only advance tlie enemy achieved was the penetration of a few bouses at Pozieres at the cost of sanguinary losses. The Brandenburg Grenadiers from Douaumout made a heavy counter-attack at Longueval and drove oivt the enemy fiom tlie sand quarry south-east ofGuillcinont. where he had temporarily gained a footing. Small French undertakings south of the Soinuic failed. Since July 15 we have captured CS machine guns. .