CLEVER STRATAGEM.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXI, Issue LXXI, 22 February 1916, Page 2

CLEVER STRATAGEM.

WHOLE REGIMENT ANNIHT LATED.

A graphic narrative of the tremendous clash of arms between the Bulgars and the Anglo-French along the Ghevgeli and Lake Doiran front during the oerbian retreat appeared recently in the Corriere della Sera. The first terrific crash between the contending armies occurred north of Doiran on a bow-shaped defensive line created to protect the northern entry or the_nmv famous Demir Kapu defile. Ine Bulscars started frenzied and simultaneous attacks on both banks of the \ardar, and strove with might and mam to drive in a wedge between 111^ ? f Dnblyani and Predvo lhe French had no fewer than 200 cnnnon vomiting fire on a restricted three-mile front. Their tactics in this emergency were superb. Suddenly their commander flashed the order to centre forces, "Hang fire, and fall back." As this order was carried out the .Bulgarians went mad with joy, fondly imagining that they h.ad smashed thrniiffh the French fvont. Unhesitatingly, they swarmed into the supposed breach, only to find themselves at once hopelessly stuck fast in the jaws of the French right and left wings. ENEMY HEMMED IN. i£u +^ lef? ,latt er closed upon them, both the Bulgar flanks were decimated by a deadly enfilade fire, while the French' centre sprang another surprise by bounding forward in counter-attack Hemmed m as they were on three sides, ruthlessly scourged with -gunfare, and put to the bayonet, the .Bulgars underwent a veritable massacre. lhe entire 11th Regiment was wiped °U nSi_ 300 Pr-Sonei>s were taken. The battlefield was strewn with corpses. Cowed by this, the Bulgars remained dumbfounded through the rest of that day, so that the Allied retreat beyond the rugged ravines of Demir Kapu—which, otherwise, with the enemy close upon their heels, would have proved terribly difficult, and, perhaps, impossible—was eventually accomplished in almost perfect order.

"Would to God we had forces sufficient to follow up that fine success!" exclaimed a wounded officer. "We could have chased Bulgars as they chased Turks at Lule Burgas."