MIXED FIGHTING ON WESTERN FRONT.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 237, 4 October 1916, Page 5

MIXED FIGHTING ON WESTERN FRONT.

ENEMY SUFFERING BADLY FROM NERVES. MANY GERMAN BATTERIES PUT OUT OF ACTION. I . . ■ LONDON, October 3. The "limes ,, correspondent at the western headquarters gives' instances of the confused nature oJf"the fighting now proceeding. The locality is an indescribable 'waste of shell holes and ragged, trench lines. Isolated parties of soldiers sometimes over-eagerly push beyond the advance and become lost in "No Man's Land- 7, Nearly all returned, straggling back at intervals or hiding in shell holes and empty trenehee until the British advance enables them, to rejoin. Sometimes Germans stray into the British lines. Renters correspondent at the British headquarters states that a Bavarian battalion order found in possession of a captured soldier shows that the enemy is suffering from "nerves." A lieutenant-colonel plaintively rchuf.es his men. in the following words:—"l have got the impression that a few Englishmen throwing bombs from their trenches can thoroughly frighten a crowd of Bavarians. If we put an unnecessary on the enemy he retaliates, and we suffer. . Therefore this fright on the Somme front must

,be dispelled." I Continually during our advance, says Mr. Beach Thomas, the "Daily Mail" corresportlent, we are putting out of action many German batteries. Never previously-have the enemy's gunners so suffered, direct hits repeatedly smashing their batteries, -which frequently are seen lying broken under twisted girders. Many instanics of the German fright to which, a Bavarian order of the day refere, are now largely multiplying. W.M rifle fire and useless bombthrowing particularly give evidence of this.