BEAUTIFULLY TIMED

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 122, 19 November 1914, Page 7

BEAUTIFULLY TIMED

THE SMASHING OF THE PRUSSIAN GUARD i — _____ BLACK WA-fCH CHARGES A MILE m , . . , , PARIS, 18th November. Ihe smashing of the Prussian Guard afc Zonnebeke was beautifully timed. The Germans shelled our trenches with lyddite and shrapnel for eight hours. .It was impossible to relieve them until nightfall. The Germans massed their Prussian Guards., who drove us back by sheer weight of numbers, trench by trench, stubbornly defended, until they came within sixty yards of where our artillery was hidden. Suddenly the British lines dispersed on either side, leaving a huge gap through which' the Guards poured, wildly cheering, into the jaws of death. There came the finest of the Kaiser's troops within fifty yards of our field guns, which belched hell at point-blank. The Black Watch savagely charged for a mile. A thousand of the enemy were killed and three thousand wounded. The artillery followed up, and shelled the enemy's line a mile further away. _ T , PARIS, 18th November. Many hundreds of the Prussian Guard were token prisoners at Zonnebeke, with four heavy cannon, twenty-seven machine guns, besides some motor machine guns. (Times and Sydney Sun Services.) A MAGNIFICENT BODY OF MEN LONDON, 17th November. The military correspondent of The Times says that the Prussian Guards were the Kaisers pride. They were defeated by the French at Charleroi, and again at the Maine, and were not mentioned again for two months. They reappeared in the attacking on the British on 11th November, fresh after being rested, and when paraded made a magnificent appearance before the Kaiser on his recent Western visit. The British since- 20th October held out' against a superior number. The German High Command had been able to make an impression with a new formation, and called up the Guards in the hope of giving a finishing blow. "They attacked the British with conspicuous gallantry, and, despite nßavy punishment penetrated our advanced line. Our war-worn regiments immediately counter-attacked, and put the Guards to flight. There cannot be much left of these historic Prussians.'-' GERMANS' FINE PERSISTENCE An eye-witness with the British Headquarters Staff, giving instances of the stubbornness of the Germans, says : "During the fighting afc Ypres a company of infantry was infiladed by our machine guns. All were killed except , six, who crawled away, wounded, after nightfall. Another company of Germans dug themselves in on a line where the bodies of their comrades lay in rows. Again, some of the enemy's cavalry at dusk charged the French trenches. Every horse was killed, but the dismounted riders continued the charge on foot, the last of the survivors being slain on the very parapet of the trenches. "Whatever deteriorating material is being drafted into the ranks, it must be admitted that the Prussian war machine has obtained a -most remarkable result to be able to make good its losses, and continue to deliver repeated blows with fresh men, when and where required, and to concentrate large forces in different directions."