TERRIFIC SLAUGHTER.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue LXXIV, 1 April 1918, Page 8

TERRIFIC SLAUGHTER.

PILES OF GERMAN DEAD. FRENCH AID THE BRITISH, . GERMANS ASTONISHED. GENERALS EXPECTED A QUICK ■ . SUCCESS. ' ' (Received April 1, 10.10 a.m.) PARIS, March 30. From the French, standpoint the battle opened on the evening of March 21, when several divisions were rushed up in motor waggpjtts to aid the British right, which was thug enabled to withdraw along the Crozat canal. Another French force reached Chauny on March 22, and was instructed to keep in touch with the retiring British right. The French Q» the 24th repelled repeated attempts io rcrosa the, Oise, the French line extending to Noy<Mi* and Lassigny. Now that, the initial danger is passed it can be said tll&t the Germans came very near breaking the Allied front in this region on the 25th. Pressure increased on the 26th and 27th, and the French front was I pressed back to the Avre river, then to i Montdidier. The enemy pressure "was tremendous. I There were only sixteen German divisions on the 50-mile front before the battle. Hindenburg and Liidendorff commenced the great gamble with practically a million men. \ French war experts believe that the Germans are unable to bring up more' than forty divisions more. The slaughter of the enemy is most terrible, [ the country roads being strewn with j German dead. Great piles of bodies I are collected after each day's fighting lin order to keep open the lanes for ' traffic. Only on Thursday and Friday i did the SAW?. . tegin, jo bur^ or to bury the dead. JPrevioiisly he had nOt eVeii time to remove all the wounded; The spectacle of slaughter has an inevitable effect on fresh German troops, many of whom are youngsters.' French officers speak yin glowing terms of the stubborn courage of the British. One narrates that when General Petain thrust in his troops the British were outnumbered by four to one. French colonels told the troops the seriousness of the position, that their brave British friends were in danger of being overwhelmed. The one anxiety of the poiius was: "Shall we get there in time?" When they crossed the edge of the Oise plateau the French found themselves in the midst of a hand-to-hand struggle between the Germans and British. The newcomers deployed to get among the British. No orders were necessary. The AngloFrench charged, and though sometimes fighting against eight to one odds they forced back the Boches, and the original positions were temporarily won back. The Germans resumed the battle at four o'clock the nest morning without artillery preparation. Ten times in rapid succession their waves swept forward; ten times they were hurled back in disorder. Twice the British cavalry, who made a splendid spectacle, intervened and charged the enemy masses with superb contempt for death. The horsemen broke up the German columns. The Allies had withstood terrible assaults, but at last they saw the French reserves coming up in full magnificence and order, and eager for the fray. Prisoners describe their losses as enormous, mainly due to machine guns. The»Eightly-eighth Division was almost wiped out. The 206 th Infantry badly mauled. Correspondents state that all the dead found on the battlefield were stripped of their clothes and equipment, which the Germans collect' systematically and send to the rear owing to the shortage of clothing and leather. British and French uniforms are evidently collected for use in some deceptive manoeuvre. Prisoners are astonished at the com-' paratively small number of British and French dead left on the battlefield. The German commanders are astonished at the Franco-British resistance, i They had .told the men that it would be all overin a few days.