BRITISH TROOPS' GRIT

TRIED TO LAST POINT OF ENDURANCE BATTLE FOR THE TRENCHES LONDON, 21st September. Mr. Philip Gibbs, war correspondent of the Daily Chronicle, cabling from • Chalons on Saturday, says that when the great storm was raging at Soissons on Thursday and Friday, flooding the trenches, the British had the most trying time of the war, and their tired nerves and souls were tried to the last point of human endurance. Several who were left in the trenches on a special mission looked as though they had been through a torture chamber. They suffered nameless horrors, and were chilled to the bone, shaking in every limb. Nevertheless, there was no "grousing." They were an army of dirty mudlarks, unshaven and tottering, but were still confident and as ready to joke as ever. ' . , The strength of the German position made it very difficult for the British to cross the marshland intersected by rivers and canals. *~ At present it is utterly impossible for^ infantry, cavalry, and heavy guns to cross the swamps. The German 11-inch guns on the surrounding hills are giving a lot of trouble to the British gunners. _ Covered by an incessant artillery duel for days, both sides have been entrenching and rushing over open ground with rifle fire and bayonet charges in order to obtain advantageous positions and further entrenchments. The British showed superiority in the battle for the trenches, and gained good ground, though at heavy cost. With the experience of the Boer War, the British were far better than the enemy in taking advantage of every scrap of cover. v Fighting in open formation on several occasions, they took trenches which, by all rules of war, were impregnable. The British, assisted by Zouaves, who repeatedly charged under the most deadly fire, reached the enemy's positions, and the Germans fled, but not until the Frenches were filled with tha corpses of the slain. The Frenchmen tossed them out of the. pits as though they were haymaking, a3.one of them said. General yon Kluck, on Friday night, ordered a general advance of the infantry, from Chavignon (twelve miles north-west of Soissons) and Anizy-le-Chateau (sixteen miles north-west of Soissons), upon the foremost British trenches round Soissons, while the artillery again searched the position, endeavouring, to unnerve the British. The wind was howling and the rain lashing down, and the British needed all their courage. The shrapnel killed many, but the Germans were not the right stuff to tarn out the entrenched British. They retired quicker than they came, and the British guns pounded them, and the rifle fire laid them out in heaps. THE ALLIES' ADVANCE PARIS, 21st September. Official. — On the left wing on the right bank of the Oise we have advanced to the height of Lassigny, near Noyon. On the east of the Oise and north of the Aisne the Germans have manifested renewed activity. Violent combats, ending in bayonet charges, have ensued in the, region of Craonne, 16 miles north-west of Reims, and everywhere the enemy has been repulsed. Around Reims the Germans have not attempted any infa>ntry attacks, but have limited themselves to cannonading our front with heavy artillery. In Champagne and on the western slope of the Forest of Argonne beyond the Somaine, we have taken Mesnil, on the Woevre. The enemy continues to hold Thiaucourt, halfway between Verdun and Nancy, and has cannonaded Hassonchatel. There is no report from Lorraine and the Vosges: The Germans are fortifying themselves on the Delme side (seven miles north-west of ChateauSalins), and to the south of Chateau-Salins (17 miles north-east of Nancy). HEAVY FRENCH REINFORCEMENTS PARIS, 21st September. M. Millerand, Minister for War, is despatching heavy reinforcements from a large body of Turcos and Senegalese, who have been entrained at Bordeaux for an unspecified destination.