GALLANT SCOTS GUARDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15912, 8 May 1915, Page 2 (Supplement)

GALLANT SCOTS GUARDS.

"FOUGHT, LIKE DEMONS.'*

GERMAN OFFICER'S STORY, ■ A German officer writes a stirring story of an attack on the Scots Guards. Many of them left London, he says, as a reinforcement draft, on January 2, as far as he could learn, and first appeared in action on January 19. "Their equipment," he says, "was ve>y good,'and they were-, all splendid, finely-developed fellows. They fought like demons, and the proof of it was that between both sides some 1000 dead were left on the- field. lt\was really only a battle for positions, but a hot one, which wo fought. The Scots Guards were holding trenches which it' was almost impossible to take by storm. " We .got orders to lay mines, and the ' day betore the attack 1 myself, with' my section, under' the command of ;>; first lieutenant, wao entrusted with -flip, work of laying the charges iu the mine Which was to blow them up, In. , the morning wo were all at our posts waiting ■for the command. At 8.30 tho order came, and we set fire to the fuse. At the same moment our muse-throwers were busy. Suddonly there was an explosion which shook the earth for miles. around. Our attacking columns instantly rushed forward to take the Scots by' surprise, whilst they were still under the effectthe explosion and stunned. 1 could not take part in the attack myself, as I had to see to removing our instruments to a place of safety. ... v - t % " Immediately after there was; a pandemonium of rifle-fire andiof machine-gun discharges, that bordered on. the incredible. The hand-to-hand combat had be-; gun almost instantly. The Scots fought like demons. Many of "their comrades had been blown into 'the air''with the earth of their trenches. .The British ar*; tillcry joined in, and fired with remarkable precision and a rapidity that gave lis the shivers. Whilst 1 was busy withdrawing our mine installation a British shell' buret inside the trench in which our reserves were waiting. It .killed, every man within a Radius of {twenty feet, and J escaped as by .a miracle,: I immediately helped .to attend .tho wounded. '..»', • ;A- ■'} .M : " Our -troops continued the attack for j two hours, and succeeded. ; in pushing on i to the second line, of the British entrenchments. Our operations were considerably hampered by a number of brickyards, and sheds which the British had -turned into fortification* At three.* o'clock in the afternoon we were still fighting, and' I had to make an inspection of one of the trenches; I had to do so crawling, as tho enemy sniped us. mercilessly. ~$ have already seen many horrors, of the bar, but I never saw any horror like, this. The dead lay sometimes'injiwos and threes on each- other, and I had to crawl over them.. At 4.30 the British ..brought" up reserves. They rushed to ; the attack in columns along a' road whore they were exposed to a murderous fire from our' machine-guns. '-".?' 'v/.r ■',/ . "As soon as 'we opened fire on them they dropped down and took, to'shelter, so that in an instant the whole- column seemed to have disappeared.. ;; . The troops that faced us were v entirely fresh, and had r never before been in action, and they behaved wonderfully well. During the; night, whilst.! was , busy 1 with my section erecting a barbed wire defence,' they returned to the attack.; We let 1 them come up close to us. before'* wo opened fire. ■, It was one of • the moat stubborn engagements I-have seen. Later on in the course . of the, night I had -to accompany our lieutenant on on inspec-. tion across a fieldjv We met" some* patrols of the Guards, and W(6,,baU pother little fight lof our..ownV WeygoP'jLway without losing a man", .and I do. noV know how the enemy (ared, 1 have been 'able, to come. ,out of these engagements with . a safe skin, but-1 r: would hot ' liko to see many more Ijkc.them. 'It was too much for my nerves"" - y . * '" ".: .