BEGINNING OF RETREAT.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 May 1917, Page 6

BEGINNING OF RETREAT.

WITHDRAWAL TO BAPAUME. PREPARED LINES OCCUPIED. • British Headquarters, March 1. During tho morning of February 24 the sentries of an Australian battalion, who wore very close to the German line where tho Australians attacked it last November, noticed the complete stillness of the trendies opposite them. The stillness was so suspicious that during the afternoon, in bright daylight, a patrol went over. It found the German trench empty; and at dusk that night Australian troops occupied the trenches which had faced them for five months. It had been noticeable all through the ./inter that the Germans did very little .ork in the way of increasing the crength of their front-line trenches on ■his part of the western front. The

aeroplanes found new. trenches being dug along the hill crests in front of Bnpaunie, where the British shell holes had begun to dot the green slopes, and other lines throughout the virgin country far behind; Bapaume. Every main line of trench was heavily wired as time went on. But immediately in front of us on the Somme the Germans .confined themselves to putting out heavy wire before their front-line trench wherever the slope, of the hill gave them shelter sufficient to do it; and to joining up certain further scraps of trench 800 yds or so behind the front lino into a fairly complete second line of trenches, also heavily wired. The main defences of the enemy were quite obviously along the crest of the further line of heights. •Here, through Bapaume, from the northwest to the south-east, along a continuous chain of hills, there gradually grew several very complete, heavily wired, double lines of trendies. I

•If the great German brain had decided as far back as November on retiring' from this Somme salient), it is doubtful whether even high commanders outside the innermost councils knew. Indeed, the amount of work which was undertaken simply to be blown up again a few months later makes it look as if the mind of the German staff was not made up until fairly recently.

GERMAN RELIEF SYSTEM. Opposite the Australians the Germans used to hold their troops at three different depths. The front line and the second line further down the hill were held by one-third of the normal garrison; the main line near Bapaumo and along the crests of the hills was held by another third; the remaining third was "resting" in villages or huts well behind the fighting area. The German regiment consists of three battalions, and tho system was for each regiment to have one battalion in each position. The divisions were very rarely taken away form the line altogether—they wero kept in the line about double as long as our own divisions. The result was that the morale of some of these units deteriorated heavily, and it has happened more and more of late that when their lines wero attacked or raided the Germans surrendered in numbers without putting up a fight. This has not been the case with all regiments:— some have shown no sign of slackening of spirit at all; but it happened so frequently as to become obvious to the German commanders, and a very serious communication was sent to all regiments about it.

The life in the front trenches, under continual shell-firo and-m deep mud, became so wearing to these German units, which were never relieved except for their shabby threo or four days in reserve, tlfat deep dugouts had to be built in their front trenches in which the garrison could get some sort of rest. Fairly early in the winter a large proportion of the German guns were removed. During the last month, when snow and frost bound all these battlefields, the Somme scarcely knew itself. It rose under its snow cover, flickered up occasionally on the occasion of a raid, and then went to sleep again. ; , i .. ~,: ; : ,. .. ,

FRONT LINE ABANDONED. On the night of February 22 the Germans began their retirement from advanced sections of their line. All that happened, so far asi the average German soldier knew, was that certain men picked from the battalion —any number from about 70 to 120—were sent off to Cambrai for a few days' rest*, and were then moved straight 'up to the front lino, again. As they went back they met troops moving back; saw (big guns Being dragged by caterpillars to the rear—and realised to their astonishment that the German line was retiring. The troops in the line opposite the Australian sector left their trenches on the night of 'February,, 23fc-just as they had left them many- times before, except that no other troops relieved them, Instead, they left behind them empty trenches with strong little posts at certain important points behind thick wire entanglements. The Australians and the British beside them very soon realised that there was only a, small picked garrison in part of the trenches immediately in front of them. But up on the hill-top opposite, looking down on them from behind two strong lines of barbed wire, was the whole of the German garrison—the Fifth Guard Grenadiers and the Fifth Foot Guards in the centre in front of Bapaume; the other regiments which had been there before on their right and left. Behind those battalions, in another line of trenches, were their second battalions, and away in rest at the hack was the third battalion. We are in most parts up against the first main line. That is the history from the German side up to late. The Australians entered Bapaume on March 17.