HAIG’S OFFENSIVE.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume VII, Issue 330, 29 November 1917, Page 5

HAIG’S OFFENSIVE.

Days of Bitter Battles. Enemy Resistance Stiffening. Fighting Under Abominable Conditions British Relinquish Fontaine. [PBRM ASSOCIATION COPYRIGHT.] London. November 28. Headquarters reports state that furious attacks and counterattacks continue on the new battle front. We hammered a way early this morning into the northern portion of Fontaine village, between Bourlon and Cambrai. Attacking from the direction of Bourlon Wood, we drove the Prussians with bayonet and bomb into the southern half of the village. ; During the attack a daring- English raid on Bourlon village succeeded in rescuing a party of officers and men isolated there '• during the night. - . A Prussian ’ attack from the village against the wood was completely cut up by machine-gun fire. - ...

BOURLON WOOD SECURE. ENEMY’S FUTILE ATTACKS. [AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION."] (Received 29, 12.15 p.m.) London, November 28. The United Press correspondent at British headquarters says that, following a futile attack against the British position at Tadpole Copse, southward of Inchy, the enemy all night shelled Bourlon Wood, Anneux, Graincourt and Dernicourt, but the position is little changed. Some posts have been established north-west of Bullecourt, in the Hindenburg advance line. Our line is apparently westward of Fontaine, but Bourlon Wood is secure.

SIR DOUGLAS HAIG’S REPORT. [AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION AND REUTER.] (Received 29, 8.35 a.m.) London, November 28. Sir Douglas Haig reports: There was hostile artillerying last night in the neighbourhood of Bourlon Wood. ' ° There has been further infantry action and hostile artillerying eastward and north-eastward of Ypres. London, November 28. ■ Sir Douglas Haig reports: Local attacks at dawn in the neighbourhood of Fontaine Notre Dame and Bourlon villages led to severe fighting. The enemy was ‘strongly reinforced and contested our advance with great stubbornness. The fight swayed backwards and forwards. We advanced our line and took prisoner over 500. We drove off this afternoon an attempted attack on our , position on the Hindenburg line on the spur westward of Moeuv*es. There was great activity in the enemy’s artillery eastward and northward of Ypres. Our low-flying machines on Monday constantly attacked the enemy' troops, batteries and transport. Over three tons of bombs were dropped on the crossings of the Sensee river, railheads near Cambrai and nortward of Douai and Somain stations. We brought down six enemy machines.

TERRIBLE PICTURE OF THE BATTLEFIELD. [AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND CABLE .ASSOCIATION.] (Received 29, 8.35 a.m.) 1 London, November 28. Mr. Philip Gibbs writes: The weather has turned bitterly cold. -The men and animals are suffering from exposure to a savage and cutting wind on a wide stretch of shelterless country. The atrmy h as moved forward beyond standing habitations, and ordinary comforts have been left behind. There is a whole stretch of the Somme battlefield where the villages are rubbish •heaps. Only graveyards and signboards indicate the positions of Pozieres, Combles and Guillemont, otherwise there is wild waste and desolation haunted with hidden horrors.

HAIC’S ChEAT COUP.

SENSATIONAL AND DRAMATIC EPISODE. PHILIP GIBBS’ GRAPHIC NARRATIVE. London, November 23. Following is Mr. Philip Gibbs’ thrilling narrative of Sir Douglas Haig’s victory:— The enemy had the surprise of his life when our troops assaulted him at dawn, without a preliminary shot. The belt of his hideously strong vvire was still intact, but the tanks smashed the wire, enabling our men quickly to attack the Germans in their own trenches. The attack will be a surprise to our armies also. Not a whisper was heard of it beforehand. I regard it as the most sensational and dramatic episode of this year’s war. It was brilliantly imagined, and the best-kept secret of the war. Although the troops facing us showed signs of being uneasy and suspicious, the High Command never dreamt of such a blow in his wildest nightmare. The enemy could not guess this mighty unorthodox plan. The Germans had withdrawn many guns from this quiet sector, but until the wire had been cut the enemy had every right to believe himself safe. He was not aware of the great numberof tanks which were nightly crawling along the roads, and hiding daily in copses beyond Peronne. and-Bapaume. The officers directing the operations had an anxious time, as it was a most audacious venture, depending entirely upon surprise. Past attacks against uncut wire have always meant death to the infantry. The destruction of wide had previously been the artillery’s work. We caught the enemy on the hop. The first they knew of the attack was when the tanks were advancing and smashing the wire, crawling over the trenches and nosing forward with gunfire and machine-guns playing from their sides. The Germans were aghast and dazed. Many hid in dugouts and tunnels, or surrendered. Only the bravest manned the machine-guns and snipers’ posts. The tremendous bombardment from our lines added to their terrors. Our platoons swarmed behind the tanks, trudging through thistles, cheering and shouting. The German artillery feebly answered our thousand shells, their gun positions being smothered by the fire of all oitr batteries. The Germans were caught like rats in a trap. It was their black day. Our men felt the thrill of this dramatic adventure, so different from previous attacks according to stale formulae, and preceded by ferocious shell fire. It seemed queer to be once again on the southern roads, crossing the Somme battlefield, the great tract of country beyond where the retreating Germans blew up the villages, and approaching a new battlefield. It was strange, after the shell holes of Passchendaele, to notice the absence of mud craters. Brown earth showed the assembly trenches dug in the night for the attackers’ field and heavy guns. The firing was intense, and the bombardment was in full view of the astonished enemy. The gun flashes were visible miles along our front, through the white morning mists. Having left Ypres neighbourhood, where it appeared we had most of our guns, it was astounding to see so many batteries here. The battle picture was the most wonderful thing in the war —wonderful because very strange. The green rolling country was dotted for miles with camps. Horses, guns, and transport were all in movement, and the army in action. One saw the tanks resting in preparation for another advance. A tank officer said, “ We are giving them merry hell. It is our day out!” We heard the tanks machine-gunning ahead, answered by machine-guns from redoubts at Lateau Wood, where there was heavy fighting. The enemy was also active at Fles Quieres, Beaucamp, and Havrincourt. There was a dreadful staccato hammering from hundreds of machine-guns, like a coffin-

maker with his tacks. Hardly' a shell came over. We saw only about a dozen burst near our batteries. Shrapnel burst over our lines in the advance, but with nothing like the intensity in the battles for Passchendaele. The enemy'clearly' was weak in artillery. A battalion of the Royal Fusiliers gained their objectives without a casualty. Several county' battalions suffered light losses, mostly from machine-gun bullets. The casualties were few as battles go now. Only 200 walking wounded had reached the southernmost dressing station by 11 in the morning. The prisoners here were Brunswick men, mostly old, belonging to the 20th Landwehr Division. Some of our ambulances drove within a few hundred yards of the battle to rescue the fallen. One of the wonders of the day was the work of our airmen. Some were flying so low that they seemed to make a breeze over my helmet. The enemy was stone dead in the air, and ffius was caught napping both in earth and sky. It is unwise to give our exact gains yet.

DELIGHT IN GREAT BRITAIN. WORK OF THE TANKS. I London, November 22. The wonderful success of the Byng boys (as the troops under General Byng are called, in imitation of the popularmusical comedy, “ The Bing Boys ”) has delighted the country. There were the heartiest demonstrations at music halls and theatres, the audiences singing ” Rule Britannia.” The surprise was the greater for the advance coming after Mr. Lloyd George’s declaration regarding the impenetrable barrier in the .west. If Cambrai is still untaken, the six .railways..converging on the city are now under the British field guns. - It is curious, to recall, that military critics in Berlin have recently been scoffing at the tanks, declaring that'they are out of date. British military critics recall that Otto von Bulow was recently commanding the Sixth German Army between the Scarpe and Cambrai, where he linked up with General von Tarvitz’s second army. Seeing his front quiescent, von Bulow may have taken some picked battalions to Italy, where he is now fighting. If so, Sir Douglas Haig and General Byng saw their chance topounce. Sir Douglas Haig’s latest invention is a complete answer to Hindenburg’s elastic defence. In the future the German semievacuated zone must be strongly manned. Another advantage of the new tactics is that the ground does not become a.crater zone. Thus, after the tanks’ assault, battalions of cavalry are able to advance. • Correspondents relate that the cavalry were able to cross the bridges at Masnieres and Marcoing at mid-day on as the enemy did not have time to destroy them. The cavalry swept around the German machine-gun emplacements and took many prisoners. Several hundred tanks were engaged in the advance. Moving forward in small groups, they rolled down the German wire and crossed the deep gulf of the Hindenburg main line, pitching down their noses as they drew their long bodies over the parapets, and rearing up again with a long forward reach of the body. Thus they heaved themselves into paradise beyond. The German troops suddenly saw the grey monsters crossing the impregnable lines, firing fiercely from their flanks, and sweeping the trenches with their machine-guns. It seemed a horrible nightmare, and the Germans ran in terror, trying to avoid the bursts of fire, and. amazed by the., mobility, of the tanks and their dreadful power. Even the German officers admit it was a brilliant attack.

BITTER FIGHTING AND HEAVY BOMBARDMENT. ENEMY OFFERING STIFFER RESISTANCE. BRITISH RELINQUISH FONTAINE. [AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION AND REUTER.] (Received 29, 9.55 a.m.) Reuter’s headquarters correspondent, writing on Tuesday, says: There has been the bitterest fighting near Fontaine since the morning, covered by a heavy bombardment, which was maintained the whole forenoon. The British fought their way right through the village in the face of the heaviest rifle and machine-gun fire, sending back over 500 prisoners captured in fortified houses and strong points. The Germans later in the morning counter-attacked with two new divisions. Grider weight of overwhelming numbers, we slowly relinquished our footing m Fontaine. It is not clear whether we retain any portion of the ruins. It is now certain that the Germans have re-organised their defences with fresh troops. We still hold the high ground, and have great tactical advantage, although the enemy’s stiffer resistance means desperate fighting. , The weather remains abominable.

FRENCH REPORT VIGOROUS ARTILLERYINC. [AUSTBALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION AND BEUTEB. ] London, November 28. A French communique states: There was vigorous artillerying on the Juvincourt district and on the Bois le Chaume front. THE GERMAN REPORT. BITTER LOCAL ENGAGEMENTS. [REUTER] London, November 28. A German official message states: There was most violent artillerying between Houthulst Wood and Zandvoorde. We repulsed an attack by the French northward of Prunay. Fighting activity has increased between Samogneux and Beaumont and astride the Ornes. Strong English attacks between Bourlon and Fontaine failed. Bitter local engagements are progressing.

A GERMAN ORDER. WARNING TO LURKING SOLDIERS. [AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION.] London, November 28. Reuter’s headquarters correspondent reports that a written German order has been found stating that if soldiers are found lurking in any place they will be blown up, and further directing that the order be read aloud to the whole battalion. L'HGENSORED GERMAN COMMUNIQUES. PUBLICATION ALLOWED. [AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION AND REUTER. 1 Paris, November 28. M. Clemenceau for the first time has allowed the publication of uncensored German communiques.