HAMMERING THE THINS

Greymouth Evening Star, 27 September 1917, Page 3

HAMMERING THE THINS

LFTTFRS FROM OFXFRAL RIRDWOOD. AVFTJ/IXOTOX, Tins DayLieuleiiauMfeiiera! Sir \V- lb Bird wood, in a letter io Sir dailies Allen, dated July VKh, 1017, states :—- “During (lie last few weeks my corps has, for the first time since our arrival in .France, been having a rest and a thoroughly well-, deserved one, as far as my men are concerned- AAV hjd a very hard time of it just before we came out for this in all the fighting we had in tlio vicinity of Itullecourt, but that is all such an old story now that it should he very stale news if I were to write about it- It was. I think, the hardest lighting in which our troops have yet been engaged, for on one occasion we had to tin'll I I our way into the 11 indeiihurg line and maintain ourselves there with both flanks exposed for several days and nights against constant counter-attacks until our troops joined up with us. Here, we are not liohlin" 1 a regular line of ■frenehes, but a senes of villages, with posts in between. One of these villages the (lermans were able to ])cnetrate, and there got hold of five of our light guns, which they blew up- Then our , cmuifer-atlack (VII upon them , from all sides, hurliny them back with tremendous loss. AA e actually counted, some dOtlO dead Hermans in front of our different villayes, while further on (hey had to, struyyle back throuyh their own thick wire entanylemenf, and while doiny this (he whole of my heavy and liyht artillery were on them as hard as they could no, AVhat the Hermans actually lost there/, *we, of course, do not know, but we could see large piles of dead heaped around. A on can imayine how this delighted my hoys, whose tails were completely* up hill. From that day the Hermans never attempted to advance to the attack against us, though as I have said, when we were actually in the ITindenbury line, we were subjected to constant attacks- I know how delighted you all will have liven at the magnificent work done by your New Zealand Division, alongside of whom, I am glad to say, two of tlx* Australian Divisions were fighting on the Messines ridge. I was very pleased at being* able to see them just before the attack, and go through all their orders with them. 1 felt perfectly confident that their operations would result in complete success- I was very glad to see also at least a hundred of mv old friends who were on the Gallipoli Peninsula with me during my short visit to them- There is no doubt dbout it that if the Germans in fron of us have their tads well down, and they have^ lost all power of initiative- I, wish this meant that I saw the end in view, but I am sorry to say I do not, for one cannot help realising that in these days of barbed wire entanglements and deep trenches, it may always he possible for a beaten force,'as long as they have plenty of k ammunition, to bold out for a very long time, especially when they realise—as their military classes do —that defeat means their extinction.”