CHARNEL-HOUSE
T TERRIBLE BRITISH FIRE, SCENES NEAR, BAPAUME. (Delayed Cable.) London, March 20. Descriptions of the Ancre battlefield testify to the torments undergone by tlie Germans. For instance, the Loupart Wood is strewn witli (lead. There is one shambles where the whole garrison was cut to pieces by the British guns, and the'water about the tragic spot is colored a vivid green or blood red by the gases of the high explosives. At least 700 German bodies were counted here.
Elsewhere the ground is. not so thickly clustered with dead, but for miles it is pitted 'with 10ft. craters, which Intermingle without a yard of earth between them.
This is the secret of the German retreat. It was to save themselves, from another such shambles, but tlie gunfire follows them remorselessly. The British fired 30,00 d shells, moatly of large calibre, at one narrow sector on Sunday and Monday alone. The condition of the villages testifies to the hurry of the enemy"** departure. Grevillers is largely intact, and in Miraumont many houses are not destroyed. The most amazing spectacle of the advance is the manner in wliich roads and railways creep up under the hands of myriads of workers, and the promptitude with which guns and munitions are brought up. It is most disconcerting to the, Germans. The latter have abandoned much munitions and supplies, but the wines and cigars found in the dugouts are regarded with suspicion after long experience of the Huns' dark wars.
We found one philosophic German awaiting us in a deep dugout. He said: "I knew you would soon be here."
Mr. Beach Thomas, the Daily ?&il correspondent, says it is difficult to avoid trampling the bodies and limbs of the dead Germans in Lonpart Wood and its environs. The heavy rain is uncovering numerous dead which the enemy 'lightly and hurriedly buried in order to conceal bis losses. Our padres labored • incessantly a' few hundred yards from the German lines, reading burial prayers for friends and foes alike.
The enemy now holds a line about as strong as the one just deserted. .iiA gunner getting ready to (ire on the Bapaume railway said: ';We'll soon force his bloomiu' Bnjjaume-Bagdad line." „• Australian officers on the front state that the difficulty of bringing up guns is immense, tlie smallest requiring twenty horses; but Le Petit Parisien's correspondent characterises the pursuit as a pursuit of gunfire. The infantry is used most economically, whilst the-cavalry /is reserved-for the surer work hereafter.
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Taranaki Daily News, 2 April 1917, Page 6
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413CHARNEL-HOUSE Taranaki Daily News, 2 April 1917, Page 6
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