A GRUESOME REVELATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16889, 29 December 1916, Page 8

A GRUESOME REVELATION

A private in a Norfolk regiment gave a lively description of the attack on Montj auban district. Among the trophies which ' he cherished are pieces of German shell, nosecaps, and a German helmet pierced by a bullet. "That helmet has a history." he said. " About an hour after the big advance began I shot through the head the German who wore it, and he didn't live more than a minute after it. You see tlie hole there (pointing to the helmet, where the biillcfc had passed ' through). This is my little souvenir of the great push." " Our artillery," he continued, " did splendid work, and it gave great encouragement to us. As far as I could make out, there were 10 of our shells to one of the Germans. Every shot seemed to hit its mark, and the ground was literally ploughed up. So fierce was the bombardment that the fire from our guns ripped up the ground where the Germans had buried their dead, in front of their second lines. This was a gruesome revelation of what the enemy had suffered previous to the opening of our attack. Our shells were falling like rain on the enemy, and we got up to the third line of trenches with few casualties—no men killed, some wounded. If you had seen the Boches running you would have laughed. They were trying to get away from the Norfolk boys, who fought like i lions."