FURTHER GAINS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3212, 6 October 1915, Page 25

FURTHER GAINS.

GROUND COVERED WOTH DEAD. PARIS, September 28. Official: We made further gains in the Artois region and in Champagne, despite desperate German counter-attacks. A communique states; We progressed * nearer and nearer to the crests south-east and east of Souchez. The Germans in the Champagne are resisting in their reserve positions, which are protected by extensive disguised entanglements. We further progressed towards Hill 185, east of Sommepy (21 miles east of Rheims). Seven enemy battalions attacked our trenches at La Fille Morte Bolante, and suffered serious defeat. They penetrated our first line of trenches at some points, but our counter-attacks in the night expelled them. The ground in front of our trenches is covered with German dead. WOUNDED MEN’S ACCOUNT. FIERCELY EAGER FOR THE FIGHT. PARIS, September 28. A number of the French soldiers who were wounded in the Champagne advance have arrived. One of them says: “The infantry attack began at noon on Saturday. For three days previous the big French artillery had made an appalling din day and night unceasingly. Our leaders on the stroke of 12 cried : ‘Forward !’ We shouted like men possessed, and were out of the trenches at a single bound. There was hot work in front of us, where the lads in the first line were doing good business. They were beyond the Boche trenches, and we ‘ doubled’ to them. , • ■ “We saw piles of German dead. Farther on we saw craters in which numbers of Bodies had been buried beneath the earth. We rushed on again, and caught sight of strong enemy machine guns in a pit. We dashed on them with the bayonet, and a stiff fight ensued. The enemy survivors shouted ‘ Kamerads,’ and threw down their arms. One officer begged for mercy, saying he had children, and offered money. He was spared.’’ Another wounded man said his company reached the artillery positions, and the gunners and infantry were huddled round the guns holding up their hands. The French artillery had made them idiots. All kinds of soldiers, old and young, all possessed one idea—to be spared. Critics explain the capture of prisoners by the statement that the French advance in the Champagne was so rapid, and the bombardment had so disorganised the lines, that the German reserves in the centre were caught in the jaws of pincers and cut off.