ORIGINAL VERSE.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 April 1918, Page 3

ORIGINAL VERSE.

THE GREAT OFFENSIVE, They came, those great grey masses, A vast and mighty throng, With artillery and infantry, Three hundred thousand strong; Whilst division on division Were hurled with bitter hate To break that British bulldog grip That held the Paris gate.

Their guns roared out their thunder, The fight raged fierce and hot, In vain those great grey masses strove But the British faltered not. In their thousands fell the Germans, Striving hard, but all in vain, To smash that tiatcd British line And the road to Paris gain.

Yet still those great grey masses came, Came on from day to day; Yet still they found that hated line Unbroken 'barred the way. ' Forced lin.ck by weight of numliers, Still it faced the maddened Hun, Though often through tile conflict The odds were four to one-

For the line which faoeil the Germans, Like a wall of tempered steel, Were brothers to the lads in blue, Who kept the gates of Kiel. And I''><■ v- .proved anew the adage, Midst the maddened Hunnish yells That it's not the greatest quantity But quality which tells.

So when the dark clouds burst asmider And tli is awful conflict cease, And we're basking in the sunshine Of a. universal peace, Then shall fathers tell their children This story, oh, so true, That the men who saved the Empire. Were the armies, old and new. —II.J.K. Kfiru, April 8.