WOUNDED MEN'S STORIES OF THE BRITISH ATTACK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16036, 30 September 1915, Page 7

WOUNDED MEN'S STORIES OF THE BRITISH ATTACK.

GURKHAS CHARGE WITH A HURRICANE OF YELLS.

THIRTEENTH BAVARIANS SURRENDER ALL ALONG LINE.

* London, September 28. ... ' An officer of the Gurkhas states that the battle of Xeuve Chapelle Ijfe was trifling compared with Saturday's fight. He lay in the trenches II on Friday night unable to sleep owing to the awful crash of artillery. -l r ,. "The Gurkhas were simply burning for daylight," he says. "The H | guns gave the German trenches the last ten minutes of the bombardI | meat at six o'clock in the morning.' Then, with a hurricane of yells, H we raced 300 yds to the trenches, which were practically blotted out. 111 " The 13th Bavarians threw down their arms and surrendered |II all along the line, so we went, on to the second line, where the p|| full blast of machine-guns met us. I dropped, but the Gurkhas \{ '" gained the second line." J»l',v Another wounded officer narrates that a German, at point-blank ■i:f<p- ran shot a British sdidier in the jaw, and then flung up his hands »Ks'- an d shouted "J surrender!" The wounded man leapt up and put a bayonet through him. One cannot give fiends like that mercy. A wounded corporal said: " I was in charge of a bombing party *.}'■ of nine, of whom seven were down before we were within bombing distance, but we flung 130 bombs on the German second line- The enemy rained grenades, and my chum and I were wounded." Wounded soldiers from La Bassee arriving at Glasgow pay a tribute to the manner in which the wounded are cleared from the front. The hospital trains ran as regularly as the coaches at the .Lord Mayor's Show. The first official warning of the offensive came when the attackers / were paraded on Friday, and heard Sir John French's stirring appeal that he relied on ever J man to do his utmost.