WESTERN FRONT.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 February 1918, Page 5

WESTERN FRONT.

CONTINUOUS AIR FIGHTING. HOSTILE ARTILLERY ACTIVE. V London, Jan. 30. Sir Dongia* Haii* reports- Hostile artillery is active at Arras and Ypro*. Our Aeroplanes yesterday dropped 400 bomb* on Roulers', Meniit. and an aerodrome near Tournai and fired sewMl thousand rounds on enemy troops. Air fighting id continuous all day. We last night dropp?d six and a half tons of bo:*** on billets, the railway station, trains, and two night-flying aerodromes ntfcr Ohent and Toumai. AH our machine* returned. SUCCESSFUL XAVAL AIR RAID. London. Jan. 30 , The .Admiralty report ft auce?ssful naVil air raid on Coolkerke aerodrome. «ir Douglas Haig reports: We were successful in patrol encounters northeast of Havrincourt and Bullecourt. V ~ ON THE ZEA> AND FRONT. ''"■■• A QUIET TIME. (.Special tM'-pnteli from Xew Zealand Official -\»-r Correspondent!. ■ January 26. The New Zcalanders have been Insy improving the sector they at present hold. Fighting activity has died down, and recently the enemy's artillery fire bscs'been muc'a below normal. Our guns, however, remain fairly active. Our casualties have decreased considerably. There has been active sniping from the enemy's lines, though their shooting is ' not good. Our snipers and machinegunners give the enemy little chance of approaching in the oppn. Both maehincgtftmers and trench mortars tire on the low-flying enemy 'planes, often forcing the' pilots to climb out of range. Our patrols are continually reconnoitring in JfoMans Land, going out by night and afeo in daylight.

Opposite our lines on the German front was a derelict tank occupied by an enemy outppst. Several Germans going and coming to it were killed or wounded here by machine-gun and rifle fire. Finally our artillery got on to it, and finished the post. Onr men went out and found twelve of the enemy's de«d inside the tank. Some of them had apparently been wounded by bullets, imS hud crawled in for shelter. These Miff «ome nthers had been killed by the «hock of onr bursting shells, which fell all around.

Recently, after a sharp trench-mortar bonAardniont at half-past one in the morning, four parties of the enemy, numbering about one hundred, attempt*d to' gain our trenches. By the time they had started, our men were standing to arms, and quickly got to work with their rifles and Lewis guns, with the result that only one party got as far as our wire, and none entered the trench. In this little brush our artillcrv distinguished themselves by the promptitude with whic?i thev responded to the "5.0.5." call. Their first shell burst on the German position before S.O.S. had tnrtt out, and the barrage came down almost immediately. The attack had, however, been already repulsed by the local fire, but the infantrymen were delighted with the promptness of the artillery response. The enemy in their adrance threw some bombs, but most of »n#se fell short. When daylight lrroke eight of the enemy's dead were seen lying outside onr wire. Besides these bodies there were many other indications of casualties.

, } THE TANKS' DAY OUT. IWRWABD TOWARDS CAMBBAI. . THE ADMIRAL'S "JOKE." Tbe part phtyed by the tanks in the advance of Byng"s aray is well known. There were a great many of them, but how many the people at home do Tiiot know. How did they assemble for t*e battle? Bometime| they came up during the night, and at other times they moved during the day. They made rather a noise when they moved, these landships attached to the British army, and commanders hearing them ps&s felt uneasily that tie Germans could not but know what was happening. Everybody on the British side of the firing line knew that somlrtbjng big was coming off. Sow, toe tanks were coming along almost in droves, and were forming up in park*. As they took up position they were so placed that stray enemy airmen could not spot them from above. Here the mechanics and gunners cleaned engines'and guns, and worked hard to have each in perfect order for tie "show.'' Everybody knew that tbe Siegfried line in front of thorn was very strong, and thai the Germans considered it impregSWe. tit wme pltMB tbe bart»d-iiiw

I entanglements were 200 ya*r«ls deep in I front of the German positions, which were short lengths of trench at all angles, fortified with thick concrete blockhov.H's and. machine-gun posts. Our soldiers were not afraid of the German positions or of the wire. In many a raid they had tested them, and they knew that behind their own lines was enough artillery to blast the lot to splinters. Compared with the Flanders front, this was a happy hunting-ground for man and machine. Thorn was little danger of man or tank becoming "bogged" and sticking, for under tlie feet was solid ground covered with short I grass. Then the dav came when the infantry j were given their orders. The men began to have that breathless feeling which is ! always u prelude to a big attack.' Through the greater part of the dark j night the men lav in the trenches and j wondered when the artillery was go- ! ing to open. Here and there a single gun spoke, but the reports were so far apart that, with the nervous stutter of the German machine-guns, they served onlv to emphasise the stillness. The men wondered vaguely if anything could have gone wrong. Behind them the tanks wore drawn up. missive and clean-cut without their mantles of camouflage, and the crews were still Ip uphills' quietly about the joke the "A'liiiirßl" iad made. When dusk was fal!iii2 the night before, frojn the tank that (low a little pennant at its peak there fluttered the message which has no- become historical in connection with thin latest branch of tlie service: "England expects that everv tank this day will do its damnedest," > A few odd shells sang overhead as dawn began to hr°ak; but still no barraae in the eccepted sense; just about five oVloek the enemv put un an «- cifedlv scattered burst of artillery fire, which soon died away THE STARTLING SIGNAL. A trait of an hour or so, then one big British gun boomed sullenly. Thig was the signal for liplVs gates to open! Every gun on the British front seemed to speak at once. Then tilie tanks began to move. Great monsters that they were, thev waddled their way through the barbed wire. Thev went through the wire ar if it were oaner and left flattened tracks smooth to the feet of the following infantry. The attacking battalions rose from their trenches and followed as one man, and with an enthusiasm never excelled in all this wonderful war.

"At last," said the platoon commanders, "we are going to swoop down on the beggars, hand to hand, and without giving them a week's warning to prepare in!"

But the youngest and keenest understood and knew what the folks at home hardly can realise, perhaps—that the glorious and dashing Cambrai "show" was as much part and parcel of the long and desperate battering on the Ypres front as though it had taken place over the same water-logged and bloodsoaked ground up north. Without the second the first had been merely impossible. The men who for three months had been fighting in the bottomless Flanders mud had, by their enduring valor, provided the essentials at Cambrai —viz., the element of surprise, and the necessary "skinning" of the German line above the Somme.