BOLTED LIKE HARES THE CHARGES AT SOUCHEZ

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 80, 2 October 1915, Page 5

BOLTED LIKE HARES THE CHARGES AT SOUCHEZ

FRENCH CAPTURE OF A WOOD fßeceived October 2, 9.30 a.m.) x PARIS, Ist October. "The-Bosches bolted Kke hares into a wood," said a French soldier to a. Renter Agent, in describing the charges at Souchez. i "Simultaneously with the order to advance we exploded seven mines, completing the destruction of the trenches. We dashed hot on their heels. Some of our comrades stayed behind to explore the ravaged trenches and subterranean shelters, which were twenty feet deep, throwing in bombs to prevent the occupants attacking us in the rear. "Fast as the Germans ran, we soon caught up, and occupied the second line of trenches in the middle of a wood. Some of the men crossed the Souchez brook and some went up a road towards Angre. The enemy brought up strong reserves, and our officers recalled us to the first German trench. "Our artillery in the evening bombardett the wood. Its aspect changed as by enchantment ; soon only tree-stumps remained, emerging from a jungle of branches. We treated the German shrapnel philosophically, because we wore steel helmets. "The next afternoon we reattacked the wood, stumbling over the fallen branches. The German machine guns were most troublesome, being almost int visible, in steel-plated s pits. We sheltered, in the shell-holes. The bombthrowers crept in behind tree-stumps and kept up a rain of bombs, and scon drove out the Germans from the wood, which is-ours for good." HEROISM AMONG THE WIRE. PARIS, Ist October. Accounts dwell on the impetuosity of the French dash in the Champagne. Their acts of devotion and self-sacrifice in an inferno of shell and machinegun fire can never be narrated. Despite the great destruction of the entanglements, great stretches of wire remained, and in negotiating these and bombing the trenches, everything that was heroic was displayed. The fire from sunken German machine guns explains the -enormous proportion of leg wounds among the French. ,