HAVOC BY GUNS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15885, 5 April 1915, Page 6

HAVOC BY GUNS.

NEUVE CHAPELLE IN RUINS.

HUGE RUBBISH HEAP.

A New York message says that the Associated Press correspondent at the British headquarters in Prance reports that to see Neuve Chapelle in the daylight is to see the most fearful example of modern artillery. There is nothing of the village left with the exception of half-a-dozen houses- After knocking buildings to pieces the British shells pulverise the remains. "The Germans were taken by surprise." the message continues. " Neuve Chapelle was slaughter for them. The British suffered most when a mist prevented the guns from supporting them. They tried to carry the advance beyond the line of the trenches. Officers say the battle has given the British confidence and strength, while it has also tested the organisation of the offensive and demonstrated the power and precision of their artillery." In a" despatch from " Eyewitness" with the British headquarters, the story is retold of how the Germans became masters of Neuve Chapelle in November, and how the Westphalians, who had captured it, were then driven out by our troops en March 10. The village was originally an unimportant collection of houses and small farms scattered about at the junction of country roads, with a church in its centre, but owing to the general tendency of the struggle covered a considerable extent of ground, and all that is left are a few ruined, crumbling, red brick houses, nearly all roofless. In their midst is a tall ivhite shapeless mass, which represents the church. Careless of Their Men. The original configuration of the tierman trenches is hard to trace. Ihe ground is so furrowed and pitted by shells that only confused mounds remain. In spots the ground appears to bo powdered by a bright yellow of fungus growth on the stagnant water, while older shell craters are covered with a scum of the same hue. Both are due to lyddii'i There is no doubt that the enemy's defences were inferior to ours in construetion, sanitation, and drainage. Despite very strict orders, the senior officers neither personally supervised tne making of the defences nor inspected them. Tim dug-outs of some of the officers were idmost luxurious, being provided with Id Is and furniture taken from houses, glass windows, and muslin curtains. Huge Rubbish Heap. "The appearance of the village." "Eyewitness" continues, "suggests the havno wiought by an earthquake. lhe place is a huge rubbish heap, and it is impossible to distinguish the streets among the rubble and bricks which obliterate them. Portions of houses are still standing, but thev are dangerous to enter on account of falling tiles and tottering walls. In the churchyard the very dead have been uprooted, only to be buried again under tho masonry which has fallen from the church, and the crosses from tho heads of tombs are scattered in all directions. The sole thing in the cemetery that escaped damage was a wooden crucifix. That is still erect, amid a medley of overturned graves. Sceue o{ Great Struggle. "North of Neuve Chapelle, and a little to the west of the high roads, is the line of earthworks which the Germans held, and round which a terrible struggle raged on the morning of the 10th. It was hero that our men gallantly faced the machineguns again and again, though they failed to force the entanglements until a battalion, working round the flank, drove the Germans from their position. Collected together are different points be'"nd the British lines are the graves of many of our men. In some places they were* buried where they fell cither singly or in little groups. At others there ;iro regular cemeteries, all the graves being carefully made, with a wooden cross erected over each, Waring the name of the soldier and his regiment. Many are turfed and covered with flowers.'