THE WAR.

Inangahua Times, 1 October 1915, Page 1

THE WAR.

[MI *!■■■ IMOOIATfIW. —CBFIBHHW

THE WESTERN FftOMT.

Attack on Loos.

LONDON, Sept 30, It is now possible to give a the story of fighting. The brigades disappeared into the smoke on Saturday, and were only able to send back brief messages of the severity of the ordeal and the greatness of the success. The details now-' available prove that, it was one of the greatest British achievements in the war. t Many battalions of the new «irmy<were engaged and acted splendidly. The boys recently landed had .their first tremendous nerve test in /listening to the intense bom ; bardment on Friday night.' # These new recriuts associated 1 with the veterans leapt out of the trenches .with a | wild hurrah on Saturday morning in the attack on Loos,, 3Vz eastward, and reached the German trenches with slight casual-; ties* ■. " They found that two lines of entanglements had disappeared; under the bombardment, but the third was uncut. It was of the strongest wire with great barbs, and was the first formidable obstacle. They charged, shouting hoarselj and encountered an enormous | number of machine guns pouring 'out streams from every part of the village# j Machine guns were posted in windows of houses and trenches j were dug across the streets. The Germans crowded the cellars, firing through apertures opening on the streets, j There were huudreds little | sieges where small of Germans with machine guns in a garret, defended the house with the courage of despair, and did did not yield until the last was killed.

The attack was hampered by the "machine guns on top of mine cranes at a height of three/ hundred feet. t ' 'Another hundred machiner guns,were posted in a -cemetery, in the south-western suburbs.

British Soldiers' Desperate; Gallantry

Mr Gibbs, writing in the Chronicle, says that having tasted battle and bayonetted Germans in two trencht s, t ie British, reck* less of their lives, attacked the obstacle desperately, and stood up under deadly machine &uns and forced their way through the entanglements.

One of the most extraordinary inc dents in this grim scene was when a company of Highlanders, charging through the smokeladen mists, encountered an unusually tall German stone dead, with a bullet in the brain, and his face blackened with battle grime, standing erect mysteriously without prop. The sight was so startling anduncanny that the Highlanders parted on ehher side as though they had seen a spectre. A great tide of soldiers poured into the breach and swarmed forward three-quarters of a mile and entered Loos.

A Gallant Corporal's Version

A little corporal, Jjandaged from head to foor, partially paral* vsed, and minus an arm, irom Loos, said that, everyone was ttached to the scrap.> When the word to advance, was fiiven we were like a mena-r, gene let and sprimed to tic enemy trenches. I selected a fchow, powerfullook ng, like J *ck Johnston. I dodged a blow hom the butt of his rifle and bayonetted him.

I took on another and down he came. , . My third encounter looked more like a patriarch than a soldier. . , _ " Oh! Don't!" he cried as I dashed at him. I hadn't the heart to finish the job. On we went from trench to trench, until the Germans were piled thick. # A terrific machine gun fire swept us and I saw strong German foices advancing. Wedashed among them with terrible effect. Our artillery wrought fearful' havoc, and the enetpy were literally blown to pieces. Six Germans assailed one of our men and he accounted for all. : The bravest among us were the chaplains, wh > stuck 10 our side where the fighting was fiercest. .

Germans Surprised

.Undoubtedly the Germans: were surprised and demoralised by the rapidly sweeping strength of the attack, and they surrendered t in a doorway and shot' down three Germans, The remaining thirty cried for mercy* , In some places the resistance was prolonged and the rapid fire from cellars caused heavy losses to the besiegers. The cellars are now full of dead, as,the result of bombing parties flinging grenades from the head of the stairway. The colonel of one of the first "battalions to enter Loos estab-i lished a signal station in the Convent House, which was soon a target for the German guns. Suspecting treachery he searched the cellars and found three Germans, and later discovered an officer in a beer cellar telephoning and directing the gun-fire. The incidents reveal the highest form of courage, as a lucky shot would have meant the German's death as well as the British. „ , The German officer died bravely in a supreme sacrifice of courage.

V CAPTURE OF HILL 70.

1 Jhe battalions having fought* struggled aheadtowards JQ, a mile distant, on rising ground, from where the Germans swept the road with machine-guns and shrapnel. An incessant .storm of fire frqro windows and,-.cottages at Saint. Auguste raked our approach. The first British reached Hill 70 at ten o'clock and clung to the 1 position all day long, with heroic endurance. Fresh troops relieved thetn at eleven in the evening, carrying on the struggle on Sunday, when the position was organised and' the advance continued with van - ing success.

ATTACK ON HULLQCH*

1 The attack on Saturday northward ; towards Hulloch was another triumph for Kitchener's Army, who formed a good proportion of the troops engaged in the struggle. Here the force advanced under a terrible fire, after the first assault, which was carried out swiftly. Then the machine-guns were brought forward rapidly in considerable numbers, and inflicted heavy losses, and the bayonets finished the work. Thb British stormed forward threes miles, and reached the outskirts of Hulloch, bristling with machine guns. During the fiercest hand-to* hand fighting the Germans yielded ground wherever we engaged them closely, but, the British were repeatedly swept , back by a tempest of bullets,