THE INVASION OF 1910.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13226, 11 July 1906, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE INVASION OF 1910.

PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT.

WITH A FULL ACCOUNT OP THE SIEGE OF LONDON,

* By WILLIAM L£ QUEUX, With Naval Chapters by H. W. Wilson.

[Copyright by William Le Queux, 1906.] EPPING CAPTURED.

DESCRIPTION OP THE ATTACK Following are further extracts from a diary picked up by a newspaper correspondent lying near the body of a German officer (supposed to be Major Splittber-er I" 1 " Kaiser Prang Garde Regimen^ J *-7i r, g,tni ° in the neighbourhood of Enfield Chase.

" 17-9-10.— are still progressing; fighting is now all but continuous; How lonit. may.. last I hav; no : idea.': Probably" there will bo no suspension of the struggle until we arc actually masters of the metropolis. , v We took advantage- the darkness to push forward our men to within three thousand yards of. the enemy's lines, placing them as far as possible under cover of the numerous copses, plantations, and hedgerows which cover the face of this fertile country. At four a.m. the general ordered his staff to assemble at * Lafton lark where he had established his headQuarters .He unfolded to us the, general outline of the attack, which, he now announced, was to commence at six precisely ; I thought myself that it was a somewhat inopportune time, as we should have the rising sun right in our eyes: but I imagine that .the idea was to have as much daylight, as possible before Us. j..' o although we had employed a night attack against Skips Corner, and successfully too yet. the general feeling in our army has always been opposed to operations of this kind. The possible gain is. we think, in no way commensurable with tin probable risks, of panic and disorder. The principal objective was the ; village of u-ppino-itself; but simultaneous attacks were to be carried out i against Copped Hall, Fort Obelisk, to the west of it, and Fort Royston, about a mile north of the village. The 9th Corps was to co-operate by a determined attempt to break through the English lining the burnt strip of woodland and to assault the latter fort in rear. It was necessary to cany out both these flanking attacks in order to prevent the main attack from being enfiladed from right and left. At half-past five we mounted and rode off to Rye- Hill, about a couple of miles distant, from which the general intended to watch the progress of the operations. The first rays of the rising sun were filling the eastern sky with a pale light as we cantered off, the long,wooded ridge on which the enemy bad his position -ding up in a misty silhouette against the growing light. - " As we tupped Rye Hill I could see T.lve thickly-massed lines of our infantry crouching behind every hedge, ■''bank,, or ridge, : their rifle-barrels here and there twinkling 'in. the, feeble rave of the early sun, their ; shadows long and ;, attenuated

behind them. Epping with its --lofty red water-tower was distinctly, visible on the opposite side of the valley, and it is probable that the movement of the general's cavalcade of officers, with the escort, attracted the attention of the enemy's lootouts, fox* half-way down the hillside on their, side : of the valley a -blinding violetwhite'flash" blazed out, and a big sheli came screaming along just over bar heads,' the loud 1 boom of a heavy gun following fast on its heels. Almost simultaneously another big projectile hurtled up from the direction of Fort Obelisk, and burst among our escort of Uhlans with a deluge of livid flame'and thick volumes of greenishbrown smoke. It was a telling shot, for no fewer than six horses and their riders ..layin a shattered heap on the ground. " At six precisely our guns fired a salvo directed on lipping village. This was the preconcerted signal for attack, and before the,echoes of the thunderous discharge had finished . reverberating over the hills and forest our front lilies had sprung to their feet and were moving at a rasing pace towards the enemy. For a moment the British seemed stupefied by the suddenness of the advance. A few rifle shots'crackled out here and there, butoui men had thrown themselves to the ground after their first rush before the enemy seemed to. wake up. But there was no mistake about it when they did. Seldom have I seen such hi concentrated "lire. Gun, pom-pom,, machine gun, and rifle blazed out from right to left along more than three miles of entrenchments.. A continuous lightning-like line: of '..fire poured forth from the British' trenches, which still lay in shadow. I could see the bullets raising perfect sand storms in places, the little pom-pom shells sparkling about all over our prostrate men, and the shrapnel bursting all along their front, producing perfect swathes of while smoke, which hung low down in the still air in the valley. . ■' " But our artillery was. not idle. - The field guns, pushed well forward, showered shrapnel upon . the British position, the howitzer shells hurtled over our heads on their way to the enemy in constantly-in-creasing numbers as the ranges were verified by ; the trial shots, while a terrible and unceasing reverberation from the northeast told of the, supporting attack made by the 9th and 10th Corps upon the blackened woods held by the English. The concussion of the terrific . cannonade that now resounded from: every quarter was almost deafening,' the air 'seemed to pulse within one's ears, and , it was . difficult to hear one's nearest neighbour speak; Down in

the valley our men appeared to be suffering severely. Every forward move of the attacking lines left a perfect litter of prostrate forms behind' it, and for some time I felt very doubtful in my own mind if the attack would succeed. Glancing to the right, however, I was encouraged to see the progress that;.had'been made by the troops detailed for the assault on Copped Hall and Obelisk Fort, and,.seeing this, it occurred to me that it was not intended to push the central attack on Epping home before its flank had been. secured from molestation from this direction. Copped Hall itself stood out on a bare down, almost' like some mediaeval castle, backed by the dark masses of forest, while to the west of it the slopes of Fort Obelisk could bairely be distinguished, so flat were they and" so well screened by greenery. . '"But its position was clearly defined by the clouds of dust, smoke, and debris constantly thrown up by our heavy highexplosive shells, while ever and anon there came a dazzling Hash from it, followed by a. detonation that made itself heard even above the rolling of the cannonade, as one of its big 7.5 in guns was discharged. The "roar of their huge projectiles, too, as they lore through the air was easily distinguishable. None of our epaulmeuts were proof against them, and they did our heavy batteries a great deal of damage before they could be silenced. "At the bottom of the valley was a little stream known as Cobbin's Brook. At this our men were checked for a considerable time, and suffered severely. I could not make out why, they found so much difficulty in passing, this apparently insignificant obstacle; but I heard later that it was completely filled with wire entanglement, which our pioneers had the greatest difficulty in removing. So although our people could have waded through with ease, they had to send back for planks and poles to* make bridges across, and the bunching at these points led to most terrible losses, for, of course, the range of the brook was known to an inch by the British. But in spite of this, in spite of the plantations on the further side, which had been turned into wire-entangled abattis, in spite of the terrible blizzard of lead that swept the hillside, our gallant fellows' still pushed onwards. It was entirely owing to the deluge of shrapnel with which our hundreds of field guns swept the English trenches that they were enabled to do this. "This alone kept down the fire from t the -enemy, .and prevented ■ it from becoming absolutely annihilating. '~► But

for all this the task before our infantry looked almost an impossible one. Presently, however, the enemy's fire slackened, and our men were enabled to push a little further forward. "I wondered what could be the reason of this, but I was not long in doubt. A cheer that ran all along our lines caused me to loot in the direction in which I now saw that every linger was pointing. There on the summit of Fort Royston fluttered out the '.Sehwarz-Weiss-Ro'th,' the lied, White, and Black colours of our Fatherland. The 9th Corps were through at last, and their guns must be taking the English in flank. By the aid- of our glasses we soon saw that this was actually what was. happening, and the general at once ordered me iv go down and tell Colonel Biscuit, who was in charge of the central attack, which had now been halted for some time, that- he must press his attack home at all hazards. " To ride down was out of the question under such a heavy and close fire, and I made my way over the battlefield on foot till I arrived at. Epping Bury Farm, where the colonel then was. It was heartrending to pass so many of our poor soldiers lying out there in the open, helpless and wounded and still exposed to the bullets which whistled about in every direction. At the farm, and in its immediate neighbourhood, I saw that the 26th Magdeburg Infantry Regiment had dug itself in to a considerable extent, and had obtained a certain amount of cover. Colonel Biscoff was lying on the roof of a, large barn examining the battlefield with his glasses over the ridge. The noise of the firing was too great for me to shout out the general's message, so I crawled up beside him to deliver it. From this elevated position, where I could hear the bullets pattering everywhere over the walls and roof, which was broken in a. dozen places by the enemy's projectiles, I got a splendid* view of the fighting, and before I could get near enough to make the colonel hear had witnessed the furious assault made by the 14th Infantry Brigade on the trenches below Copped Haiti. 'They threw, themselves- upon them line after line like the waves of a rising tide. No losses could stay them, and as I looked the flashing glint of cold steel told me that the bayonet was at work. The British withstood this overwhelming assault with the utmost bravery, but they were outnumbered and, so to speak, swamped by the masses of; our men. Most fell where they stood ; I noticed none of them getting away t- the rear. The sight was, greeted .with frantic 'Hurrahs!' bv our soldiers at the

farm. and .-at '. once on receiving the message Colonel Biscolf signalled the whole line to advance. '*■•■ -.'■'■ _ , ■ "Despite the severe maiding they mast have been getting from the 9th Corps, ike English still hang desperately on to'.Eppins and their entrenchments in front of the village. Their fire spasmodically intensified as our leading tines stepped boldly out into the open and advanced without "tiring, ■«& it was considered that the distance **»■ too great- for a really effective fire. " But the artillery pushed their'guns still further into the light, and poured shrapnel over our heads upon the enemy. Just at" this period the lofty water-tower in our imtiled front came down with a /trash; smothering •'» considerable portion of the British line with impenetrable clouds of dust, through which the enemy could not see te fire at us. This enabled us to get our firing line into effective range, and the rattle of their magazine firing was simply appalling. One could hardly imagine that anvthiiiT could withstand such a tempest of "balls, "To cut along story short, we captured Epping after a tough fight, and by noon "ere in possession of everything north of the forest, including the war-scarred ruins that now represented the mansion of Copped Hall. and from which our pom-poms and machine guns were firing into Fort Obelisk. But our losses had been awful As for the enemy, they could hardly have suffered less severely, for though ft tat tv protected by their entrenchment's uiir artillery tire most luv« been annihilating '* (To tie continued daily.)