HOW AMIENS WAS SAVED.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 May 1918, Page 8

HOW AMIENS WAS SAVED.

FRENCH CORDON BARS WAY. OUTNUMBERED TEN TO ONE London April 7. Reuter's correspondent at French headquarters wrote yesterday:— In the second battle, beginning on Thursday, we held the eneiny, and repulsed him in most places with heavy losses, with troops which entered the battle on March 25. The closing days of March were among the most critical of the war. The Germans had been stopped on the Oise and the Somme, but confronting them between Montdidier and Moreuil was a mere cordon barring the way to Amiens. The troops were railed from a sector hundreds of miles distant as fast as possible, and' they engaged the enemy as soon as they were detrained. A general, carrying a carbine, with his staff, had arrived, and they were scouting the battlefield with only a few cavalry patrols between them and the Boches.

A staff major was actually killed while engaging German mounted men.

The first reinforcements arrived on March 20, but the main body did not appear until several days later. Meanwhile, the enemy was preparing a grand attack. The most critical moment was on March 27. Nine miles of line were screened only by cavalry patrols and a few guns. The line was re-established on March 28, but it was held by only three French divisions. These l for four successive days, had to meet the shock of 30 enemy divisions. It is a sober fact that during those four days a general, with three divisions, held up nine times our numbers. There has not been a finer military feat during the war. During the whole of the battle : relief was impossible, yet fresh German divisions were thrown in daily. The enemy is fully exploiting his superiority in numbers by attacking in crushing strength, and always with fresh troops. As soon as an enemy division gains its object it is withdrawn, and its place is taken by another. On retiring, the division is reinforced, and it rests for a few days. Then it is again sent to the battle. Hence, within a week, the First Guards division was engaged in two different sectors. We repulsed three regiments of the First Prussian Guards Division, accounted the best in the German army. The French fought them from tree to tree of the park, back to the walls of the chateau, and the colonel then ordered a counter-attack.

The poilus, crying "Vivi la France," charged, and having a hideous melee among the trees drove the Germans from the park.

Fighting against similar odds occurred during those four days along the whole of the Avre front.

The enemy halted on March 31 for breath, and the attacks were renewed on April 4 with 15 divisions, including the Guards and the Brandenburghers. The onslaught was repulsed with a slight loss of ground—little more than the villages of Mailly-Reineval and Sauvilly.