DEAD PILED IN HEAPS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 180, 4 September 1914, Page 7

DEAD PILED IN HEAPS.

MAGNIFICENT BRITISH GUNNERY million Germans in advance GUARD. (Received September 4, 10.10 a.m.) LONDON, September 3. Another correspondent reports that on August 28, the Allies held a creseent on the wooded heights. The British on the left and in the centre were supporting the heavy thrust of the main 1 German advance, with General Pau's troops on the right. At least a million Germans were movingl, oil Saturday "afternoon, as a vanguard, supported by a fresh army corps from Belgium. The cavalry were sweeping across a great tract of country, and there was a great mass of artillery, under cover of which the infantry moved as a wedge against the English. The English wing found it impossible to resist the onslaught. The British gunnery was magnificent. They shelled the advancing columns so that the dead were heaped along the road, but, as one of the gunners said, it made ho manner of difference. "So &oon as we smashed one lot, another followed, column after column." The railway was destroyed and the bridges blown up on the main line from Amiens to Paris and .on the branch lines from Dieppe. Th<jn, fighting all the way, the British fell back. *General Damade, at Airmale, held the Allies' left with some of his reserves, holding the hills to the east and west, where they were in touch with. General French's cavalry upon the Amiens road. Meanwhile General Pau was sustaining a terrific attack, culminating in the River Oise. The Gen.ian onslaught on General j Pau was repelled by the JFrench gunners, and then followed a series of brilliant bayonet and cavalry charges.

An eye witness stated that the heroism of the French troops was sublime. Every man knew that the safety of France depended upon him, and he was ready to sacrifice his life. The troops were joyful and enthusiastic, and despite the enemy's overpowering numbers, they gave them tremendous punishment. The German columns were broken and routed and hundreds of them bayoneted. A. hundred more were forced into the River Oise, while the whole front of the battle was outlined with the dead and dying, whom the Germans were obliged to abandon. Nevertheless, the vast reserves of the Germans forced General Pau to cease his advance.