WAR NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 November 1916, Page 5

WAR NOTES.

pKE AGAINST TWENTY-FOUK,.] The following story seems too marveV Inns to be credible, but it is vouched for by more than one witness of part °? the exploit, is well as by the prisoner* am) as it is officially accepted by thei unit as true a report has been made on it. The story tells of a- corporal whoi waf- the end man in a trench of which)' we held a part and the enemy another! part, when a party of Germans, coitsistinj; of two officers and twenty-twoi men. came to attack with bombs* Tin: corporal killed them all but one, mid that one Hung himself down an<fl begged for merey. First the Britisher, used his revolver and then he picked upi one German rifle and then another. Halfway through the fight the roar secHonj nt the Germans started tc run, and h 8 hunted them along the trench, clamber* in l : out those whom lie had already killed. When all but one was disposed uf, the hunted man flung himself down? be-ging for mercy. And he is a prison* er. THRILLING STORY TOLfi TO THI| KING, Cpl George Bennett Burleigh, son olj the late well-known war correspondent, stems to have had a remarkable escape from death, and in the sequel he owe* ;hi-i life to a Now Zealandei, who picked him up and took him to an advanced jdre>Miin-statioii. It all happened on .September 15, and by the time the'firsi German line vas reached, Burleigh says he had killed eleven Germans. "Theit I was spun round and fell to the ground, a bullet having passed through my left buttock. I started crawling towards'a fcheil hole. When within a few yards *f (he hole a German major of the Prussian Guards, niio was about Oft flin high, swore at me, ami lifted his rifle to hi* stii.ulder, the barrel being quite near my face A bullet passed through my jaw, ; iiit was deflected and eame out of my chin. 1 lay still for an hour, and when I lifted my head I saw the German major picking,off our wounded with his rilie. T watched him go to the other si.ie of the shell hole, and, not being abls to stnnd it any longer, I picked up. n biyonct and crawled to the edge of tho shell hole. "T made a great effort, and flung myself into the hole and rammed ,tlw bayonet through him, but it did not kill him, and he fought like a wild cat. I made a last effort and gripped Sis ihroat with my hands, and managed to throttle him, iind.he fell dead across mo. 1 lay there helpless underneath the German for two days, without anything to eat or drink, and 1 lost a lot of blood. On the "veiling of the second day another woundeu msn eame along and pulled the dead German off me, but hi eoiOil not tak" me with him ia he was too badly wounded himself. At about S o'clock that night the. Germans' curtn in fire stopped, as our army had pushed them on. I then crawled about a mile, and eventually a New Zealander picked me up." This thrilling story was told to the King and Queen at a Windsc Hospital by Burleigh himself.

TIIE SOIIME OFFENSIVE. ATiUm a London correspondent:—tt be remembered, that we are j>"f. yet quite at the end of the present summer's campaigning in the west. Since July the Allies have pressed steadily forward in the Sonime sector, remorselessly ehewing up the enemy's fortified lines with a terrible cannonade, and then swinging forward irres;stibly with the infantry's bombs and bayonets. At first om British losses were .severe. Admittedly our gunnery practice was inferior in some respects to the French. But a va.st improvement in tiiis respect has come about, and apart from the fact that the German interior lines are less formidable than their front lines, we arc now making good our slow advance at less cost. AnJ all reliable accounts are in agreement that the German losses are consistently more heavy. In the first place, Hie enemy has suffered more and mora severely from our cannonade, our gunnery improving and their dug-out defences deteriorating in quality as time) goes on and our lines advance. And in the second place, as the Germans concentrate and counter-attack, their casualties mount up by leaps and bounds. It has often happened, 1 am told, that nn important position we have captured! after elaborate preparation at relatively small cost has cost the enemy terrinty severe losses in repeated and futile) massed counter-attacks, So we can reckon that our advance in the west" is costing the enemy a great price, and at the same timt the enemy is failing to hold crucial heights from which we eanl dominate the adjacent terrain. Complete satisfaction is felt and expressed in the most critical" and authoritative quarters with our western push-. And I cannot help drawing tho conclusion, from information which reaches London from good sources, that thero is even more important news to come from France before this summer is quite over. If the war docs outlast another winter and early spring, Germany will have to face next summer's offensive with seriously depleted resources and, from strategic positions, vastly; inferior to those so carefully selected and tkfr fully organised more than a year "ago. We, on our part, have fiotjjfojK to feat