A GRIM STORY.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXII, Issue LXXII, 9 October 1916, Page 5

A GRIM STORY.

"THE CLEARING UP OF EAUCOURT

L'ABBAYE

LONDON, Oct. 7. , Mr Philip Gibbs relates a grim story ■concerning the capture of a monastery -.at Eaucourt L'Abbaye. three days J --and nights there were terrifying doings "-in the deep vaulted crypts and cellars, -which the heaviest British explosives Avei-e unable to reach. The Britishers I followed the. Germans-into' the 'vaults and fought with bombs, which filled . i>he caveras with strange lights, loosened massive stones, and smashed ancient .pillars. Scores of bodies still lie in Spools of blood in the depths of the -vaults. . 'An even stranger sight. "ras that ot two tanks, which crawled over the trenches, crushing the Germans. An i early British attack was ■ checked at the •double line of trenches in front of the monastery. The tanks enabled the infantry to" pass the trendies and through • the monastery ruins, and to dig a new 'flitch on the northern side. The storm •«md rain swamped the. ditch around ■•md behind, forming a quagmire of a * mile Food and ammunition earners were bogged, and it was impossible to .wet supplies to the little body of men ?n the Abbey. They wei'e dangerously isolated, and their position would have lieen desperate, but the Germans them- ■ solves had lost heart, being as wet and ■1' hum-TV as our men were, so they clecidod "to retreat. Only a few suipers and machine gunners stayed A party of surrenderers, under an ofheer, came to the Abbey and told the story. Later German reserves arrived with nev supplies, and they made a bomb uttack on the Britishers in the Abbey. We had the disadvantage, owing to the accidental explosion of a dump ot bombs, leaving the Britishers with what they carried on their bodies, lhe dogged fight continued for two days amid heavy rainstorms. The Britishers desperately clung to then; waterlo.^ed holes, the fight^s being wet toTine skin, covered with mud. and ' utte.lv weary, while the wounded were in a tragic plight, but the fighting spirit was unquenched throughout, and the hottest fight continued undergrFi'uflly, we cleared up Eaucourt L'Abbaye. This fe a technical phrase, and has an ugly .significancelt means that there is not, a single German 111 { 3. the abbey vaults "except the bodies oi the dead. It the ghosts of old monks

walk, who once came down with horn lanthorns to fetch the abbot's wine, they would see the British soldiers, covered with mud and cleaning rifles, binding up the wounded and cheerfully chatting of the fight that was over.