VISIT TO HILL 16.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16022, 14 September 1915, Page 8

VISIT TO HILL 1 6.

FAMOUS SPOT DESCRIBED. SCENE OF WILD CONFUSION.: ||tS| The following description of Will 60 . . ■was given by Renter's correspondent in w .|s|| a message - from British h&dquarters,' dated July 25 "In a recent despatch Sir John French':" reported that Hill 60, after having been ■— s : - successfully mined and captured on April : 17, was retaken by the Germans by means / ( of poisonous gas on May 5. The present > J :;.?! position at this point is peculiar and of r >. I great interest. %v

"The hilL which is of low elevation, • rising only some 30ft to 40ft above tha;-jf'-surrounding country, is really nothing but '?- a knoll of gently-rising ground, that forms the end of the Klein Zillebeke ridge: - : -- The German trenches run in a double v.. tier along the crest and the upper slope, ■ . while our trenches form an irregular ■'; line along the edge of the lower slope. ';,.'';* The enemy is at the top of the hill, and : we are a little way up the side of it.

" The whole face of the hill presents r'v a picture of the wildest confusion. ~ •-K Everywhere are huge craters, the result 11 of the mine explosions on the night of , the British attack, torn and gaping sand- Jji bags are scattered in profusion, broken rifles, British and German, odds and ends of equipment of all kinds, smashed barbed wire, and a mass of other debris | lie in bewildering variety down the hill- ''| —the whole half-hidden in the long . -> r < grass that has sprung up between the r , Iv s trenches. The latter twist and wind in » san extraordinary manner. _.-?: "At one spot I reached a point but rt 6yds from the enemy. There is an old ; communication trench running between us • and the enemy, and down this two ; barricades have been erected, one on our side and one on the German side. Between the two stretches a short patch of "■->•.■■; ground, shut in on either hand by the _ ' crumbling walls of the old trench. "The Hill 60 trenches are full of in- J* - terest, but, for obvious reasons, no precise - details can be given. At one spot a railway bridge spans our position, and in the cutting beneath it a large pool of stagnant water has collected. Beyond : it stretches the railway line, the rails . £■ torn and twisted, and partly covered ; with weeds growing between the sleepers. ;_ ■■„_ The line is under the direct fire of the; enemy, and to cross it in the open is to court certain death from a sniper in.. the enemy's trench, but a short 4Qyds . - away. In the pool below the bridge are ..;.: * a number of ghastly relies, the exact nature of which is best left to the imagination. It is enough to say that dead men have been lying there for some months, and no man dares approach to bring out for buriaL" ■