THE OFFENSIVE.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 August 1916, Page 3

THE OFFENSIVE.

ON THE WESTERN FRONT, BIG MOVEMENTS IN JULY. GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS TO HAND. GERMAN WORKS NOW BILLOWS OF EARTH. WONDERFUL TRENCHES BECOME VAST GRAVE*With the British Army in the Field, via London, July 6. The British guns -are in a good position to follow up the advance and the battle is developing, I believe, according to the original plan which anticipated slow and steady fighting from one German position to another. This is being done. Another point was gainel to-day by the capture of Bernafay Wood, to the north-east of Montauban, from which I have just come back after seeing the shelling of this wood from close range. It was the French guns, away to the south, which were making most of the commotion in the air to-day. Heavy fighting was going on there, as though the French were making a further advance, and the rattle of their field guns wa.s incessant. As I went over the battlefield of Montauban the German shells as well as the British were falling over Bernafay Wood, where each side held a part of the ground. A little to my left Mametz was being pounded heavily by the, German gunners, and they were flinging shrapnel and "lumps" into the ragged fringe of trcw just in front of me, which marks the place where the village of Montauban once stood. They also were barraging the line of trenches just below the trees and keeping a steady flow of five-point-nines into one end of the wood to the right of Montauban, for •.vliyh the British are now fighting

UNDERGROUND FORTRESS.' It is beyond the power of words to giv:! a picture of the German trenches over the battlefield of Montauban, where the British now hold a line through this wood beyond. Before Saturday last it was a wide, far-stretching network of trencher, with many communication ways and strong traverses and redoubts. No mass of infantry, however great, would have dared to assault such a position with bombs and rifles. It was a great underground fortress, which any body of a men could have held against any others for all time, apart from the destructive power of the heavy artillery. But it was the most frightful convulsion of earth that the eyes of man could see. The bombardment of tihe British ,'uns tossed all these earthworks into vast rubbish heaps and made this ground a vast series of shell craters so deep and so broad that it is like a field of extinct volcanoes. The ground rose and fell in enormous waves of brown earth, so that standing above one crater I saw before me these solid billows with thirty feet of slopes stretching away like a sea frozen after a great storm. FOUND MANY RELIC 9* The British must have hurled hundreds, if not thousands, of shells from their heaviest howitzers and long-range guns into this stretch of fields. Even many of the dug-outs, going thirty feet below the earth, and strongly timbered and cemented, had been choked with the masses of earth, so tliat many deau bodies must lie buried there. But some had been left in spite of the 'upheaval of the earth around them, and, in some of these I crept down, impelled by the strong, grim spell of these little dark rooms below where German soldiers lived only a few days ago. The little square rooms were litted up with relics of German officers and men. Tables were strewn with papers. On wooden bedsteads lay blue-grey overcoat,* Wine bottles, photographs, albums, furry haversacks, boots, belts and kits of every kind had been tumbled together bv the British soldiers, who had come here after the first rush to the German trenches and searched for men in hiding. In one of the dug-outs I stumbled against something, and fumbled for my matches. When I struck a light I saw in a corner of the room a German, who lay curled up with his head on his arms, as though asleep. I did not stay to look at his face, but went up quickly, and yet I went down- the others and lingered in one where no corpse lay, because of the tragic spirit that dwelt there and put its spell on me.

ORDER OF HATE. I picked up some letters, all written to "Dear Brother Wil-heim," from sisters and brothers, sending him their loving Greetings, praying that his health was °ood. and yearning for his home-coming There was a littlo book of soldiers songs, full of the old German sentiment. On the front page there is an array order from IYince Rupert of Bavaria to the soldiers of the Sixth Airoy. "We .have the fortune," it says, to have English on our front, troops of those people whose envy for years 'has made them work to surround us with a ring of enemies in order to crush us. It is to them we owe this bloody and cruel war Here is the antagonist who stands most in the way of restoration of peace. Forward!" I stood again above tlie ground in the shell craters. Other sheik were coming over mv head with their indescribable whooping, and ])!?.ck shrapnel was still bursting about the fields. Tile Germans were dropping 5,9 s along a line a hundred yards away. "Be careful about these dug-outs," said an officer. "Some of them have been charted with mines inside, and, there mny be Germans still hiding in tli em." Two Germans were found hiding there to-dav. Some of the British found themselves* being sniped, and after a search found that the shots were coming from a: certain section of a trench in which there wore communicating dugouts. After cunning trapping work they isolated one dugout, in which the snipers were concealed. "Come out of that," shouted the British. "Surender like good boys." But the only answer they got was a shot. The dug-out was bombed, but the men went through the under passage 'ato another one. Then a charge of aL... • 'la was put down, W the dugouts -o lit*

FRICOURT ONE MASS OF RUINS. El'i'iiCT OF BRITISH BOMBARDMENT, STORIES OF FIGHTING TO NORTH OF SOMME, HEROIC SELF-SACRIFICE OF, BRITISH UNIT- j With the British Armies in the field, July 5, As the hours pass, the British are gaining ground, extending their line slowly but steadily to straighten it out. between the German strongholds, which have teen captured after the heavy fighting. To-day, when I went into the heart of these battlefields now in British' hands, and around Fricourt, where the British made their most successful advance. I could see the progress made since the first day's attack by the elevation of the shell fire, which traced out the German and British lines. To the right of us was Mametz, held by the British troops, and the encircling loop no longer dipped so steeply southward as before, but curved gradually westward below the Bois de Mametz, until it reached Fricourt itself, _ HOLD VILLAGE AND WOOD. Here the British are not only in possession of the village, but also have the wood on the high ground beyond the Crucifix Trench on the edge of the left, and the Lozenge Wood, still further to the left. The British line then runs to La Boisselle, most of which was in British hands early this morning after a flcree bombardment, followed by the infantry advance.

It seemed to me. from my observations to-day, that the German guns are retiring further back to escape capture or direct hits, for many of their shrapnel shells appeared by the high angle of fire to come from an extreme range. All this shows that the British are pressing the Germans hard and that, thus far, they have been unable to oring up supports to secure their defence. SCENE WAS WONDERFUL. The scene here was wonderful, and though I have been in many battlefields since the war began, 1 have watched never before such a complete and close picture of war in all its infernal grandeur. The wood of La Boisselle was to my left on rising slopes, up which wound a white road to that ragged fringe of broken tree trunks, standing like gallows tree 8 against the skyline. Immediately r facing me was Lozenge Wood and the Crucifix Trench with two separate trees known as the Poodles, and just across the way on rny right, in the hollow that dips below the wood, was Fricourt. Montaban, which the British troops took by assault in the first day's fighting, was marked only by one tall chimney. the rest of it and the ruins being hiil behind a crest of the ground. But to the right, and near enough for me to see and count its ruined houses, was Mametz, lying in a cup below the ridge. A great bombardment was raging on both sides. The Germans were shelling the places the British had takeii from them, and the British guns were putting a heavy barrage on these positions. La Boisselle was being shelled by shrapnel with great severity, and there was one spot at the northern end of the tree stumps where the British and German shells seemed to meet and mingle tlieir explosions in what was at once a village. There were clouds of smoke, which rose in columns and then spread cut into thick palls.

' SINGLE ROUNDS AND SALVOS. The British batteries were firing single rounds and salvos in the direction of Contalmaison from many places behind the lines, so that I was in the centre of a circle of gun?, all concentrating upon the German lines between Fricourt and Mametz Wood and La Boisselle. The shells from the British / heavies came screaming overhead with a high rising note, which ended in a sudden roar as a missile burst, and the field batteries were firing rapidly and continuously so that the sharp tif each shot seemed to rip the air as i! it were made of calico. The Germans were replying chiefly on the ground about La Boisselle. I coil 1 see nothing of the men in that smoke and flame, but I could see iuer, going up toward it in a quiet, leisurely way as if strolling on a summer morning in peaceful fields. It was curious to watch the British soldiers walking about this battlefield. They seemed very aimless in their little groups, wandering about as if picking wild flowers. Shells were whining and rending the air above their heads, but they did not glace upward or forward to where the shells burst and vomited black smoke, «•

CARELESS OF WA9, They seemed as careless of as holiday-makers on Hampste?.d Hejth. Yet when I went among them I found that each man had his special mission and was part of a general purpose, guided by higher powers. Some cf. them were laying new wires for new telephones on the ground just prepared. Others were runners, coining down with messages through the barrag?. Higher up artillerymen and engineers were getting on their jobs quietly and without fuss. . From over the ridge where the Crucifix Trench runs I could see their heads iust above the trenches. Thus they seemed to rest a while after they came into full view below the ridges. Had they been seen by the German gunners? Wi.y were they running like that down the slope? Shrapnel clouds came white and curly above the skyline. Others fluffed lower and near to the men. They were in such a bunch that one shell would do great damage there. Tliey scattered a little, and I saw their figures taking cover in the hummoeky ridge. It was only later that I heard that these men had been fighting heavily down near the two trees known as "The Poodles," and that they had captured a large number of German prisoners who came toward them with uiilifted hands. The prisoners were being brought down in small bunches. Up at La Boisselle the shelling was still intense, but the British troops already surrounded parts of the positions, and after a concentration of the guns advanced and captured it. ' REMNANTS OF BATTALION. A number of Germans were there in their dugouts, the remnants of a battalion which had ■ suffered frightful things under the British gunfire. Some of the officers, it seems, f-sm y'liat the prisoners told me, went away

to Contalmaison, saying that they were going to bring up reserves, but they did not come bafk. The other men, about 250 of them, were staying in the dugouti, without food and water, while the British shells made fury above them, and smashed up the ground. They had a doctor there, a giant of a man, with a great heart, who had put his first dressing station in the second line trench, anil attended the wounds of the men .until the bombardment intensified so that no man could live there. Then he took the wounded down in the t dugout, those who had not been carried back, and stayed there, expecting death. But then, at about 11 o'clock this morning, the shells ceased to stream and roar above ground. And after the silence they heard the noise of the British troops. He went up to the entrance of his dugout and said to some English soldiers who came up with fixed bayonets: "My friends, I surrender." Afterwards he helped to tend the British wounded, and did good work under the fire of the German guns, which were now turned upon this position. -- - -

THE MACHINE GUNNERS. . There was another German to-day it La Boisselle. but his work, though grave, was not that of helping the wounded men. It was one of those machine gunners who kept up the fire upon British troops when they first made an assault upon this position, and to-day he was there still in his emplacement, doing very deadly work, and though he was wounded in nine places when the British [found him, he was still working his terrible little Run. The British took him prisoner, and in the British way bore no grudge against him, but sang his praises. Many other machine guns were captured, and round one of them all the team were laid out dead, killed by oiie of the British shells. About 11.30 a.m. I walked down into I'ricourt, which was captured yesterday afternoon. It was a strange walk, not pleasant, but full of terrible interest. Fighting was still proceeding on the high ground above, a few hundred yards away heavy shells, certainly 5.9'5, falling near the villages and raising clouds of black and greenish smoke. And they are falling into Mametz, some distance to the right. Fricourt was not an inviting place, but other men had been there at the worst time. We walked across No Man's Land in the full sunlight of this July day. and though shells were rushing overhead, those from the British batteries seemed low enough to cut off the J»eads of the flowers. - •••

GRINNING AT lIIS LUCK* Slightly wounded men, first hit up there beyond the wood, walked along unaided or helped by a comrade. One of them, a boy of 18 or so, with blue eyes under his steel helmet, stopped ma and showed me a bloody bandage round his head, and said, with an excited laugh: "They got me all right. I was serving my Lewis when a bullet caught me smack. Now I'm off, and I've had eighteen months of it." He went away grinning at his luck, because the bullet might have chosen another place. Some German prisoners followed him, two of them carrying a stretcher on which an English soldier lay with his eyes shut. A wounded German behind turned and smiled at me. A strong, meaning smile. He was glad to be wounded and out of it. Other Germans came down under guard of little groups of English soldiers and Red Cross men.

WHERE GERMANS HAD BEEN. I struck across the fields again to the old German lines of trenches and saw the full and frightful horror of war. The German trenches were smashed at some places by the British artillery fire into shapelessness. Green sandbags were flung about and the timber from the trench sides had been broken and tossed about like match sticks. I stumbled from one shell crater to another over bits of indescribable things and a litter of men's tunics and pouches and haversacks, and dogouts. Rifles lay about and the ground was strewn with hand grenades. Here and there was a great unexploded shell, which had nosed into the soil.

There were many German and British dead lying there in Fricourt. The Germans were thick in one part of tho trenches. They had been tall, fine men in their life. One of them, lying with many wounds, was quite a giant, - .n----otlie'r lay on his back with his face turned to the blue sky and his hands raised up above his body, as if in prayer. But I turned my head away from; these sights, as most people hide the things from their imagination, too cowardly to face the reality of war. 4

DOWN INTO A DUGOUT* ■ 1 I followed an oflicer down into a Gerir/ui dugout until he halted half-way clown its steep sides and spoke in surprise: "There's a candle still burning." It gave one an uncanny feeling to see that little ligjited candle in the deep subterranean room -Where, yesterday, German officers were living, unless dead before yesterday; It could not I.a.e been burning all that time. For a moment, we thought the Germans might still be hiding there, and it was not improbable, as two of them had been found in Fricourt only a few hours before. But in all likelihood it had been lighted by an English soldier who had spent the night here after the capture of the place. The dugout was littered with German books and papers. I picked up one of them and saw it was "Advice on Sport." There was a, tragic air about the little room and we went out quickly. Fricourt itself is just a heap of frightful ruins, with the remains of houses, which the Germans used as machine «un emplacements. Every yard of it was littered with the debris of the wars aftermath.

WITH THE PRISONER!?. I saw ilic prisoners to-day, and spoke to some of thorn, They belong mostly to Baden. They were strong, stont men, in the prime of life. Only a few were wounded and lay about in a dazed way. Others spoke cheerfully and expressed relief at escaping the gunfire, which they described as terrible. We saw a little group of officers. They were men. of the aristocratic type. Tlvey spoke very frankly an<l acknowledged the new power of the British artillery and the courage of the British soldiers, which were not new to them. A little apart from his fellowoflicers stood a German licnteiiant-col-oniel who was. charged with having killed two British ollicers by ibombing them after his surrcndeiy " GOMMECOURT SALIEXT. The story of the attack on Ciommecourt salient shows that this action was one of the most serious things in Britih history. The German hail concentrated a great mass of guns, in the belief that the main attack was to extend from Wile to Roye. The existence cf Ihis Mief has been Droved by Ger-!

man orders which ii&ve come into our hands. As soon as the British left their trenches after the bombardment yesterday, the enemy barraged the British front and support trendies with an infernal fire. Tho British advanced through this barrage as if on parade, and in spite of the heavy losses made their way over five hundred yards of No Man's Lund to the Germans' front line. The Gorman soldiers also behaved With gTeat courage. They carried their machine guns right through the British barrage until they faced the British in the open and swept them with fire so that large numbers fell. The attack did not succeed in this part of the lines, but it drew tho Gorman reserves, and great honor is due to the valor of of those who fought as heroes. It is a story that must be told as one of the most glorious acts of self-sacrifice ever made by British, troops.