BATTLE FOR BAPAUME.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 208, 31 August 1918, Page 5

BATTLE FOR BAPAUME.

NEW ZEALAND FIELD DAY. A FINE BAG OF PRISONERS. I N.Z. War Correspondent's Message. 1 FRANC K. August 28. The weather has cleared, and the battle is proceeding under satisfactory eondi-, tions for us. The Now Zealand operations ] last night were completely successful, i Knglish troops adTancing on our left took tlie northern part ot Kavreuil, South Islanders going through the south-! em part. The latter also took Monument | Wood, and then pushed on to thei Bapaume.-Beugiiatre Koad. Progress' towards Bapaume was difficult owing to ] heavy machine gun fire. Bavarian troops i opposite us fought tenaciously. The North Island Brigade, on the right was holding a line, and did not liavie serious fighting. This morning the Fufle Brigade, which had come up, pushed out patrols to within touch with the enemy. Our troops also cleared up the Bapaume railway siding for the main operations. There was a heavy bombardment from our artillery. Since the battle began We have captured between four and five thousand prisoners. In the territory from which the enemy had been driven mnch ammunition and material had been left behind, but not many guns. We have, however, captured some guns. One of i our batteries turned some 5.9 in guns I round, and for a considerable part of j the day has been firing the enemy's own ' ammunition on his position and retreat-1 ing troops. Yesterday the enemy heavily shelled Grevillers. and another position we had taken. He also fired gas shells, but, owing to our dispositions, all this shelling had but little effect. STUBBORN FIGHTING. To-day his stores on the Bapaumo-Albert-Peronne line are burning. Numerous fires can be seen behind his lines. Dead men and horses lie. along the roads at Miraumont and Irles, and his dugouts, to which he set fire at Miraumont, are still smouldering. Identifications show that his units are jumbled, and that there is much disorganisation. Ijite in the afternoon we watched the flight of 18 aeroplanes going over to add to this confusion. In the rejrion of Bapaume a naval division has been in action against us. A battalion medical officer whom we captured has been taken into one of our medical messes, and is doing good work attending to wounded German prisoners. The Bavarian division that fought .so well is one that was relieved at Ypres in July. Our guns are now bombarding for a further advance. August ■>:. Vieree fighting continues in the vicinity of Bapaume, which is proving one of the most difficult points on all this front. In a commanding position, and admirably suited for defence with its dug-outs and cellars, it enables the enemy to make a stubborn defence. Both the ruined town and its environs are crammed with machine guns that spit furiously at our' advancing troops. From the first there haa been no attempt to take the town by a frontal attack. The enemy is employing some of his best troops in its defence, and lias advanced positions strongly defended by 'infantry and machine gun?. TERRIFIC SHEIK FIRE. At. six o'clock last evening one battalion of the Rifle Brigade continued the a.ttaek from , a position south of Favrcnil towards the Bapaume-Cambrai Koad. Our men advanced gallantly behind an artillery barrage; before they had gone far they came up against a perfect hail of machine gun bullets. No troops could stand up against such a furious lire, and they had to fall back to their former positions. Nevertheless, the battalion took heavy toll of the enemy during his counter-attack, which was delivered by the Sixteenth Bavarian Regiment, comprising sturdy fighters. The enemy knows only too well the value of the position he holds in and about Bapuame, and apparently lie means to hold it to the last extremity. To-day there has been strong machine gun resistance from beyond Bapaume, hut the Xew Zealana- ,- ers have not for the present continued their attack. At eleven o'clock, however, we watched from tirevillers an attack towards Ligny Thiollys, south of Bapaume, by other troops. Our guns, well forward, were pouring in a terrific fire, and one continuous line of smoke arose from the bursting shells. While this attack was proceeding the. enemy angrily reolied with his guns, and limbers dashed past us under shell fire at a hard prallop along the road to Grevillers. This afternoon then- was a destructive lK>mb.irdment by the heavy guns on trenches and positions held by the enemy in front of the New Zealanders. GOOD WORK BY TUNNELLERS. Water in all this country is scarce, hut a good supply has been found, and the New Zealand Field Engineers are doing magnificent work, erecting troughs, and pumping plants, and making roads to relieve congestion. This work they voluntarily undertook, not only for our own troops, but for others" as well. Thousands of animals are watered thero daily, and motor tanks carry supplies forward and to the rear. Our ammunition and supply columns continue ai their best, while our medical services have attended to and cleared our own and other wounded with remarkable celerity. Our tunnellers are working in a manner that should make their friends, the West Coast miners, very proud of them. Men from the entrenching group are also doing good work with pick and shovel behind the lines in forward areas, where but a few days ago were enemy guns. Camps have sprung up in the most marvellous? manner, anil streams of traffic pour along loads that have been hurriedly mended after shell fire from both our own and enemy guns. Every day thousands of tons of ammunition are fired from the guns on our corps front. We have captured a secret order issued to the fcerman Army regarding the serious food shortage in Germany. Troops arc nrjrod to make every effort to save food, and horses, when killed, are to be promptly bled and disembowelled, and the carcases taken to a named depot.