BATTLE OF THE SOMME

Nelson Evening Mail, 7 August 1916, Page 5

BATTLE OF THE SOMME

AMERICAN CORRESPONDENT'S IMPRESSIONS. GREATEST HUMAN EFFORT IN AT.T, HISTORY. A GIGANTIC OFFNSIVE. ENORMOUS FRENCH RESERVES AVAILABLE. (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) (Rec. Aug- 9.55 a.m.) NEW YORE.. August- 6. A remarkable description, of the Battle of the Somme is -given by Mr Wytli "Williams,i correspondent of the New York Times. Cabling on Saturday he says : All week I have been with the French Army on the Somme. This is the first time a correspondent had been .permitted to witness at close quarters such a, gigantic action. ,■ If any American believes France has been bled white at Verdun he is absolutely mistaken, for what I saw on the Somme was the. greatest human effort in all" history. The French Army to-day is greater, stronger, and, foetter than ever. - The offensive on the Somme will became greater, stronger, and better than ever. The offensive on the Somme will become greater than that of the Marne, Artois, Champagne, or Verdun. I walked across the conquered ground to a plateau, wherefrom a- panorama of the great action spread, ont as far north as I c-ould see. I could see the British fire at Pozieres, and nearer were fragments of Fricourt, Hardecourt, and Fise. A few blackened stumps are all that is left of Hardecourt. German shrapnel constantly exploded over the ruins behind, and "lay the dust of what had been the villages of Beqninconrt and Dompierre. I could hardly believe that the leprous looking ground was once villages. All that was left was dust and rubble, discoloured and brownish yellow by picric acid . I had seen ruined village? before, but here even the ruins had disappeared. "Where once villages had been one could not even follow .the line of the main street. There was nothing §xcept holes and piles of dust. •• After leaving the exterminated town the artillery Vxeeommerced, an order having been given to destroy everything. I watched the human sacrifice going no in the roll of smoke and the roar of guns. I marvelled at-'the comparative smallness of-the French, losses. A colonel rf one regiment told me that during the entire offensive he had lost- only four killed and fifty injured. In the great.advance on the previous Sunday the German -losses were ten thousand, and the French seven hundred. The wonderful precision of the French fire was shown by the horizontal strips covering the abandoned German trenches. Here the fire was concentrated, and barbed wire, shelters, and barricades, and everything, was pulverised. Yet outside these strips was & beautiful -rolling meadow, peaceful and undisturbed.- The lines marking the curtain fire were almost mathematically straight.

I saw only one German aeroplane, ■while there were great fleets of French machines over the enemy's lines. A .German aviator, iieeing desperately, -was pursued, on all sides.

I counted twenty French, observation ■balloons and 'three German balloons In the far distance.

I am not permitted to give the numbers of troops, but so far the action has ibeen fought "by a small number of French infantry. The brunt has been borne by, the artillery. But there are enormous French reserves and' activity. The number behind the lines is five times geater than; in anv previous offensive

Five hundred miles of railways and 1800 wells were constructed in this legion before the attack Ibegan. This afforded the greatest proof of the gigantic scale whereon the offensive would be continued.

I paid a visit to Para-de-Brittes, one of the eight great munition depots, just ■beyond shell range. The supply of she*;.covered acres, ajid the number was staggering. Several hundred freight cartloads are sent to the front daily. The vast majority are underground, others are under canvas. X saw French guns* firing 15.7inr shells, and another was firing at a range of 25 kilometres. The organisation is perfect and the success of the French offensive seems inevitable. ■