FIRST PHASES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17273, 14 September 1916, Page 9

FIRST PHASES.

♦ DETAILS OF THE SOMME ADVANCE. [From H. Warner Allen, Special Correspondent of British Press with the French Armies.) PARIS, July 20. An authoritative account of the first pluses of the battle of the Somme from Juiy 1 to July 10 will bo published in the French papers to-morrow, but the greater part of its details were fully covered in my dispatches of last week. The account lays great emphasis on the preparation for this.offensive, which jeeupied more than four months. “ Never had organisation been carried so far as on the Somme. Old roads were broadened, new roads were built, and the facilities of communication increased by the construction of railways of both normal and narrow gauge. For the upkeep of roads ancl lines quarries were opened and worked. A special carting system was organised. Depots for ammunition and materials were dug in the hill sides. The numbers of shelters in the trenches were vastly increased, ancl every railway line had in its neighbourhood firstaid stations and ambulances. Bridges, both for wheeled traffic and foot passengers, wore built at many points, and in certain'places the labour accomplished changed the very appearance of the country. WORK OF AEROPLANES. Tho work done by the French aeroplanes is now well known, and, thanks

(to aerial photography, the damage i caused by the French guns was closo‘y followed by the High Command. Field batteries, heavy batteries, and the largest guns of all had a particular mission assigned to them. One destroyed entanglements, another trenches, another rained its shells on villages and their fortified cellars, while yet ..another swept ‘he cross-roads and all places of concentration. Never before had such a perfect system of communication between the advanced lines and the rear been devised. i

The semi-official description speaks in tho following terms of the union between tho French and British Armies: “ Our valued British Allies met with extremely hard fighting on our left. They had earned successively Mametz, Afoivtauban and Bernafay Wood. On the morning of duly 7 they announced' that they would attack the next day tho Troues Wood in the neighbourhood of the French lines. The general commanding tho French division stationed on their right considered that it was an act of “ Camaraderie militairo” to go into battle with - his British Allies. On July 8, by 10.10 a.m.. the French infantry, who had left their trenches at 9.30, had occupied and passed Hardecourt. At 230 jp.m. the British, who had dashed forward a second time with magnificent courage on the German works, captured two-thirds of the Trones Wood. They were supported in tlrs. attack bv the * fire of the French artillery, and the dav deserves to be remembered as evidence of the brotherliood-in-arms which grows over closer in face of Dio common enemy.” j SINGING THE MARSEILLAISE. | Tho French centre was held by the colonial troops and tho right by Breton reservists, who charged with a. dash of which tlie youngest troops might bo proud. They had already distinguished themselves at Quennevieres by the side of tHo Zouaves, and on this occasion they charged singing the Alarseillaise. In the centre the German losses between July 1 and 10 were very heavy. In the district of Biaches alone a whole regiment was exterminated, as well as one battalion of another regiment. On the extreme French right the troops performed a difficult and brilliant manoeuvre. They left their trenches facing east and began a turning movement towards the south, thereby allowing the troops further to the north to continue their advance, besides guaranteeing them against any surprise if their advance was checked. This movement exposed the troops carrying it out to the fire of distant German batteries, combined with nil enfilading fire from the German guns in the south Their turning movement also ran thA risk of a , counter-attack on the flank. It was a difficult tactical problem which was perfectly solved. The results of the first phase of the battle on the French side may be summed up as follows: In less than a fortnight the French troops on a front ten miles long, with a maximum depth of six and a half miles, have carried fifty square miles of fortifications. The booty amounts to eight,y-fivo guns (several of large calibre), 100 machine guns, twenty-six minenwerfer, 236 officers and 12,000 moil, besides large quantities of material of all kinds.