NEWS FROM THE FRONT

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 138, 8 December 1914, Page 8

NEWS FROM THE FRONT

AMONGST THE .DYKES. (FROM OUROWN CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, 29th October. Describing the fighting amongst the rivulets and dykes of Northern Belgium, a correspondent says : — "The country is cut up by numberless ditches and small rivulets. In between these the Germans and the Allies have constructed a network of trenches. There is not a streamlet which is not commanded at almost point-blank range by entrenchments. " The Germans have done their utmost to cope with the problem. Their troops are provided with what one of our men described to me as ' tabletops '—that is to say. light but strong wooden devices, which can be thrown across these rivulets and used as bridges. They rush forward under fire, using the things as shelter, and «the front ranks having bridged the obstacle, 1 a rush follows, which usually ends in appalling slaughter. Very often they are mowed down by machine guns at not more than twenty or thirty yarda. If they get across, which they somobimes do by sheer force of numbers, more especially at night time, hand-to-hand fighting ensues, and they almost invariably get driven back again. The bodies of the German dead at one point so cumbered » dike that its waters were diverted into the fields." ROYAL LANCERS CHARGE. A corporal of Field Artillery, now in hospital, writes of a. charge of Bengal Lancers : — "Supported by artillery, a brigade of their infantry was flung at us, and we braced ourselves for what we thought was coming. Just when they were halfway towards our trenches the Bengal Lancers, who had arrived the day before and were anxious to get into it, were brought up. Splendid fellows they looked as they passed us on their fine chargers, and we broke into cheers. They smiled back grimly, with theii eyes glancing ahead and their lingers nervously feeling their lance-shafts. At the word of command they swept forward, only making a slight detour to get out of the line of our fire, and then they swept into tho Germans from the lett like a whirlwind. The enemy wore completely taken aback. "The Lancers did not give them much time to arrive at an ■ understanding. With a sin-ill yell, they rode "right through the German infantry, thrusting right and left with their terrible lances, and bringing a man down every time. The Germans broke and ran for their lives, pursued by the Lancers for about a mile. When they came back from their charge they were cheered wildly all along our line, but they did not think much of what they had* done."

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