LONDON TERRITORIAL BATTALION'S GREAT FIGHT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15949, 21 June 1915, Page 7

LONDON TERRITORIAL BATTALION'S GREAT FIGHT.

GROUND HELD AGAINST ENEMY ON THREE SIDES.

IMPERISHABLE GLORY WON BY DOGGED ENDURANCE.

'(Boceivcd June 20, 330 p.m.)

London, June 10.

An officer of the B battalion of the London Territorials describes its share in the advance at Bois Grenier, near Festubert, in the operations in the Richebourg region at the beginning of May. "What official reports dimissed in a few lines," he says, "was to us 15$ hours of desperate and bloody fighting. Our battalion was on the extreme left and was the pivot of the whole attack. Ours was the only battalion that succeeded in doing the work allotted to it. The moment our bombardment ceased we were over the parapet and charging right through the Germans. We captured three lines of trenches at the point of the bayonet, while two companies turning to the right and left bayoneted and bombed the Huns back along their trenches 200 yards on either side. Then we settled down to hold the ground/

"Some regulars should have advanced the same way. Their front was connected with us, but they were unable to get through. Meanwhile we held out against steadily-increasing counter-attacks. We stuck to it grimly for eight hours. Guns on both sides were engaged in a deafening bombardment. Shells were pitching everywhere. We had a nasty enfilade fire from German machine-guns, which wo were unable to locate, and from snipers.

"Then wo got the promise of reinforcements. •We saw them approach and {ado away. The Germans were in force on our flanks, and we were ordered to retire. We had to fight our way through to our trenches across ground raked with a withering crossfire."

General Rawlinson, commanding the Fourth Army, declared: "By your splendid attack and dogged endurance you and your fallen comrades won imperishable glory for the thirteenth battalion. Its feat has been surpassed by no battalion in this great war." •