Brilliant Episode.

Manawatu Times, Volume XL, Issue 13537, 30 October 1916, Page 5

Brilliant Episode.

STRUGGLE ON THE SOMME. (Aust. and N.Z. Cable Association.) (Received Sunday, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 28. Percival. Gibbon says: — "The hand to, hand fighting in the gun-pits Of Hazy trench on Thursday was one of the bitterest episodes of tho Somme action. The attack was undertaken in weather conditions which only tragic heroism could make possible for an advance. The British units went to the trenches on the previous night in soaking rain and there were seven degrees of frost before morning. Later the rain malted the country to a loathsome yellow paste. Our barrage advanced ahead of the attackers. They were only half-way out of their quagimre of trench 'when they saw a German officer recalling defenders from the parapets. While our men floundered in mud every German was firing a rifle. , : <' We took the German po,sition,crawiW aud tumbling forward somehow, until the trench was captured. The defenders were Bavarians, who had captured Vaux in the face of the magnificent Froncl,. Jhey were worthv foes, hut no watch for British bayonets. The dead Germans could now be seen thick on the ground. But for the miserable weather the British would have been before the great trench system guarding Le Translpy."