FIGHTS FOR GUN POSITIONS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 13636, 17 March 1915, Page 3

FIGHTS FOR GUN POSITIONS.

TAKING GERMAN TRENCHES,

BRILLIANT BRITISH ATTACK. LONDON, March 10. The Official Pres Bureau has issued a further narrative by "Eye-witness." who, m dealing with 1 .recent events, writes : — .

"On some snipers' posts were destroyed by our guns. The enemy's efforts at sapping" have been checked by bomb-throwing and. other offensive* measures. In those cases where a few «of the . enemy have succeeded m establishing themselves m line with our trenches they have stretched wire netting across the top of the trench, and nave fixed it aslant, so that the bombs will roll off. It may be imagined what life under such conditions must mean for the occupants of a narrow excavation, within a few yards of the enemy and tinder a perpetual rain <)i high explosives.

SUNDAY MORNING EXPLOIT. "Early on Sunday morning*- a iattalion m the vicinity of St. Eloi delivered a brilliant attack on the German trenches. It then proceeded to fill them m and render them useless. While doing this another British party advanced up to the- communication trenches, repelling all the enemy's efforts to interfere with the work of destruction. When the demolition was complete the men retired, the whole operation taking only 20 minutes. "The troops are effecting a great improvement m the trenches by employjng signposts as warnings against snipers, very often a kind of sporting element, born of professional rivalry, enters into a contest m sniping.

SHARPSHOOTERS' SPORT.

"Rival sharpshooters will signal the results of their shots to one another with a flag. A sharpshooter watches hit opportunity and fires. Immediately over the tog of the enemy's parapet appears a white flag, which is waved from aide to side, signalling a miss. Despite the common Bond of professional markmanahip, each knows that one false move ' mean* instant death at the hands of an unseen opponent. "A great many of the attacks that are undertaken by both sides at this stage of the war have as their .object the capture of rising ground which will enable one side to command and overlook the other. The infantry does not desire a commanding position, but for an artillery aotion it is one of the utmost importance to gain a position whence the enemy's trenches, batteries, and communications are observable.

"GOD PUNISH ENGLAND."

"The efforts made to incite them against us succeeded so - well that the officers and men now evince their detes-

tatiou of us by formally *aluting on* another with the phrase, "God punish England ' "Eye-witneis" adds that the German recruits suffer from swollen feet, and that the older soldiers have a poor opinion of the new recruits.