NEUVE CHAPELL STORY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15900, 24 April 1915, Page 9

NEUVE CHAPELL STORY.

EARTH TORN BY SHELLS. GERMAN SOLDIERS DAZED. BRITISH SWEEP THE TRENCHESThe description of "Eye-witness" at the British headquarters ami letters written by soldiers combine to form a fairly complete account of the battle of Xeuve Chapelle.

The- artillery bombardment of the "ground" in preparation for the infantry attack was, perhaps, the greatest and most severe on record. Something like 350 guns of all sizes are said to have concentrated on that area of death for a little over half-aii-hour, and to have ponied in bursting shells to the number of, perhaps, 17,000, before the infantry rushed through the trenches, and those in the trenches themselves jumped out and poured irresistibly o„ the .lazed and stunned Germans. For the first time in the war the British artillery had a preponderance in numbers so great that a Pn.ss.an officer, bred in the very school, which has taught and gloried in! Blldl ruthless bombardment of positions. eo,„plained that it was unfair, that if it lad been an infantry battle they would have won.

Entire Companies Surrender. "On the morning of March 12, the tier man counter-attacks were renewed along the whole front round the village and to the north of it," writes " Eye-witness. " Jnese again resulted only in great losses to the enemy, who also l;ft many prisoners in our hands. By this time the Germans were beginning to show signs of great exhaustion, and on more than one occasion the men of the attacking line lay down and held up their hands when we opened fire. Near the cross-roads south of the village, in front of the locality known as 'Port Arthur ' which we had taken the day before, about seventy of the enemy who had got into a communication trench were captured 111 a body. It was only at one point, northwest of the village that thev reached our trenches, but we at once drove them out and pursued them towards their own lines, taking many prisoners. As the hostile attacks grew more fcflhle our infantry pressed on.' and gave the weary enemy no rest. 'They stormed a strong position in some houses on the left, near the Moulin du Pietre, and a party of about fifty, armed with bombs, rushed a trench and took eighty prisoners, " As the afternoon wore on the resistance of the Germans weakened, and in some cases entire companies surrendered. Many of the men were completely exhausted. The effect of our bombardment may be judged from the fact that on the 10th, when our men had approached the German trenches in front of Xeuve Chapelle, some of the survivors had crawled painfully out and knelt upon the ground, holding up their bands, utterly dazed. The village itself had been converted into a shambles, and remained a medley of ruins, thickly strewn with corpse.;.

j " And yet, in spite of this, on the 12th, !in certain localities, the Germans continned to hold firm, and resisted with the utmost determination. They made special use of houses so situated that from them the ground could be swept by the fire of machine guns, and in some cases placed as many as half a dozen of these weapons in one building. These had to be taken one by one after a desperate fight at close quarters."

The Terrible Bombardment. " Prisoners who had been all through the war stated that they had never experienced such a bombardment as that which preluded the assault on Xeuve Cbapelle. Many were still taking refuge in their dug-out;; when our troops reached their trench??, and in the village several were captured in cellars before they had realised that wo were upon them. In spite of the exhaustion of ninny of them, th?ir aspect on the whole said a great deal for the discipline and order prevailing in the enemy's ranks. Considerin" the conditions under which they had been living in the trenches, both their clothing and their persons were extraordinarily clean, and most of them were shaved. ' As soon as possible all busied themselves cleaning their clothes and rubbing the/mud off. Indeed, their chief care seemed to be to make themselves smart." Wounded soldiers from the front relate thrilling stories of their experiences. An old campaigner, who had seen service in Burma. Egvpt and South Africa, declares that it was by far the hottest fiu'ht he ever was in. The Germans wore cocksure the British could not turn them out of Xeuve Chapelle. and even laughed at the very thought of it.

"When the charpn rune, and we formed part of the whole attacking force, wo went at it like school lads, cheering and singing for all we were worth. The slaughter was terrible, but we didn't care about anything. We were driving them back, trench after trench, and nil the time singing and shouting, 'Tipperarv' and other songs like mad. Our own men were falling all round us, but we could not stop a second. We just said, 'There goes So-andSo,' and kept at it hammer and tongs."