VICTORY IN THE AIR

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume L, Issue 175, 8 October 1917, Page 6

VICTORY IN THE AIR

.MILE OF GROUND GAINED. HIGH SPIRITS IN FLANDERS. DONDON, Sept, 21. Describing the British. attack in Flanders yesterday morning Reuter's correspondent states there was heavy rain during the, night, but the weather cleared at dawn, and the all-important element of visibility was reasonably high, while the ground was not seriously affected. The attack differed materially from all previous battles in various aspects, which it is not permissible to indicate, but which were dictated by the necessity of, devising some formula for deling with the enemy's new defensive tactics. The enemy's pill-boxed and shellcratered ground was the subject of great, artillery concentration for a week. By day our heavy guns carried out intense counter-battery work and a destructive bombardment of the defensive positions, while at night the field-guns and trench-mortars pitched gas-shells and "oildrums" among the enemy. The actual preliminary bombardment was short, but it was of incredible intensity, consisting of a series of barrages, one in advance of the other. All the troops had thoroughly rehearsed their part. THOROUGH AND SCIENTIFIC. Air Beach Thomas, correspondent of the Daily Mail, says:—Once again the Empire troops have stormed a slight but dominating ridge, winding eastwards from Westhoek, and looking down over pathless swamps. Many a brooklet and valley had been kneaded into blue paste by the artillery. Every w k ere broken timber was tangled in the remnants of the wire. The shell-holes north of Glenhorse Wood, almost touched, and most were brimful of water. Every wood is a staked swamp, complicated by wire. The moral of to-day's splendid victory on the Me'nin Road shows that if pays to fight big. Everything went "well from the start, repeating the Messines success by methods, singularly thorough and even more scientific. Our wounded are full of admiration for the barrage, and state that' the Germans were unable to do much. "We were on them before they recovered from our barrage." The barrage fell without distinction on the front systems, back roads, the avenues of approach, the points of assemblage, and the batteries. The aeroplanes brought back _ the first news, dropping messages written on rough paper. Long before noon it was known that the desired lines had been stormed and were being organisedOver all the central area we took in our stride places for which we had been haggling since August-Wurst and Schuler Farm, and the bigger and more famous : obstacles, Glen corse Wood, the Inverness Copse, Shrewsbury Forest, and a host of fortified farms and redoubts. The enemy is doubtless about to test his theory of defence, but the spirit of our men is higher than ever. "I do hope they'll counter-attack," was the general wish before the attack was launched. So far we have over-run the enemy to a maximum depth of a mile. The only check , and that was slight, was in the region of the Hessian and Belgian Woods, and beyond St. Julien. Elsewhere we "secured virtually all our objectives. Our airmen fought and observed regardless of a 30-knot wind, which swept towards the enemy, and meant extreme danger to the airmen. The enemy had moved his best troops to Flanders, relieving his armies as often as possible. The" cardinal importance of the victory is that it is destroying the flower ot the German army. THE NEW DEFENCE TESTED. The inefficiency of the defence" was 'due t£> the comparative thinness of the garrisons of trie front--lines and their utter overwhelming by the artillery. Shell-holes, often connected, and always wired, formed a defensive system outside the blockhouses, but their garrisons had not the heart to put up a good defence. The day's fighting gives the hope that we have found an answer to the new art of defence in depth. It was obvious to everyone that our guns had obliterated the trenches and pathways. The garrisons were standing ' knee-deep in the slush •of extinct trenches. WitEin 48 hours our gnns had engaged over 170 enemy batteries. In replying the enemy did no more than scatter vague shells over our supposed gun areas, merely making a - fonrfal answer to our barrages. The enemy was nervous elsewhere. His aeroplanes, Gothas, and Albatrosses were thrust back by our airmen's offensive spirit. JUBILANT WOUNDED. The Times correspondent, Mr Perry RoTJTBson says:—We have struck with shatering force and "complete success a mile in extreme depth. That mile we have oveirun and grasped and now hold. Already the enemy has been attacking. The more counter-attacks the better we shall be pleased. Victory • is in the air. What we have won we shal hold. The majority of. our wounded are malking cases, and the most jubi- • lant wounded I have ever seen. When they were no longer able to follow, arc'; Had seen their comrades go romping on, ail shouted with laughter when told that the Germans had surrendered. "We didn't know whether to dance or .to stand on our heads," said one, "as they streamed out of their concrete shelters." They bad pushed through Inverness Copse a hundred yards to the ' east, and half-way to Gheluvelt. Our men swept over hideous country, studded with fortified farms and concrete redoubts, their machine-guns sweeping the ground before our lines. Their garrisons are now dead or prisoners. The German defence consisted almost entirely of machine-guns in concrete fortifications. Our men tell comt, ctales of the German terror when "surrendering. Yet some of the enemy fought from their concrete shelters to fee last. Many of the forts were shattered by our guns and only a direct hit from the heaviest guns is capable of doing' this.