A GRAPHIC STORY.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 June 1917, Page 9

A GRAPHIC STORY.

APPALLING SLAUGHTER.

. ' London, May 18. The Morning Post's correspondent at headquarters says:— "Bullecourt is still a 'battle-ground. The Prussian Guards and English infantry combat with bombs, which has coL. tinued since we flrst got a foothold in the ruins. We are slowly but surely clearing out the enemy from pockets. Only two posts remained. On Monday morning our troops, consolidating, captured the ground. The chances of recapture aro remote. It has been slow and weary work, with all the grim horrors of war. Our men toiled and fought in Sunday's oppressive heat, and continued throughout the night. There was not a breath of fresh air, not a moment's peace in this unwholesome dustheap of unseeu dangers and little glory. The battle was merely a dogged tussle for a portion of a stable and a few feet of trench. "The sun and the shells beat down unceasingly on the rubble heap which was onco Bullecourt. There was no shade or refuge savo the cellars. The British bombers pushed forward in a tangle of debris in the villago streets, stepping over the bodies of the foe. Many Prussian Guardsmen have fallen at Bullecourt. They are fine, well-knit men, and good ,courageoys fighters—as the British and Australians willingly testify. Their stubborn resistance makes our triumph greater! ; .Yet the stubborn Prussians admit that they have no liking for such fighting. Prisoners said they had merely been Hung forward to' furnish a few, days' grace for -the trench-diggers in the rear.

"The Prussian Guardsmen carpet the earth around Bullecourt's upper fringe. Their bodies choke the ditches 'and link up the village withjthe Hindenburglines. By successive piles of dead ygu can trace each pliase of the fruitless counterattacks. Mutilated bodies lie thich; where, the barrage first cauaht the infantry in waves. More dead lie witnin the range of the machine-guns, and the final remnants of the counter-attacks lie in small groups in the village These were slain by our bomhers. iji addition to massed attacks, there were many bombing sallies from the Hindenburg trenches west and north of the village.

"The Australians on the eastern side kept the enemy quiet. Elsewhere the enemy, worried our men night and day with great persistence and daring wherever opportunity for bombers; offeredj Tho thirst of the men was almost unendurable at Bullecourt The .Australians looked cooler than the Britishers, and said with a certain pride thatUhey felt cooler. r ot long ago the saino Anzacs shivered. In their neat shirt tunics they encountered much badinage from the British. To-day the Australians turn tho banter, and even regard the Gallipoli "shorts" as a possibility at Bullecourt. The Australians have very decided ideas on military dress, and insist on having their own, but whatever garb the effect on tho Prussian Guards was the same, because the Australians outside Bullecourt were killing their opponents as successfully as the British within."