CROWN PRINCE’S LATEST EFFORT.

Otago Witness, Issue 3212, 6 October 1915, Page 27

CROWN PRINCE’S LATEST EFFORT.

PARIS, September 29. A wounded French officer, describing the Crown Prince’s latest attack in the declares that it was the most furious of the war. There was a tre* ntendous bombardment, to which the French guns replied with little effect. “The French parapets,” he says, “ melted away, but the French did not flinch. Then the German guns abruptly ceased, and a new kind of liquid fire—a mixture of tar and petrol —was projected into the trenches, making the heat almost unbearable. The French, however, stood their ground. “ Suddenly the German infantry loomed up in the intervals between the liquid tires. We poured in streams of lead, but the human wave slowly reached our trenches. Hloody liand to band fighting fallowed, and in the dense

smoke we were obliged to fall back. Our reserves dashed forward, but were stopped by a curtain of lachrymatory shells. They put on respirators, but these were unavailing. Nothing daunted, they dashed through the vapour, holding their breath, am! their eyes streaming. They fell in serried masses on the Germans, who wavered and broke. Our artillery prevented the supports from coming up, and thus, after 24 hours' fighting, the enemy re= tired to their trenches, though they held ours here and there.” THE CAPTURE OF LOOS. MACHINE GUNS EVERYWHERE. LONDON, September 29. Mr Phillip Gibbs, who is with the British headquarters in France, writing to the Daily Chronicle, says : It is now possible to give a clear story of the fighting. The brigades disappeared into the smoke on Saturday, and were only able to send back brief messages regarding the severity of the ordeal and the greatness of the success. Details now available prove that it was one of the greatest British achievements of the war. Many battalions of the new army were engaged, and they acted splendidly. There were boys who had recently landed, and their first tremendous nerve test was listening to the intense bombarment on Friday night. These new recruits, associated with battle-scarred veterans, leapt out of the trenches with a wild “ Hurrah’’ on Saturday morning to attack Loos, three miles and a-half to the east. They reached the German trench with slight casualties, and found that two lines of entanglements had disappeared under the bombardment, but the third line was uncut, and was of the strongest wire, with great barbs. This was the first formidable obstacle.

The chargers, shouting hoarsely, encountered an enormous number of machine guns pouring out streams of lead in every part of the village. Machine guns were posted in the windows of houses and in trenches dug across the streets, while the Germans crowded the cellars and were firing through apertures opening on the street. There were hundreds of little sieges, where small parties of Germans, with machine guns in garrets, defended the houses with the courage of despair, and did not yield until the last was killed.

The attack was hampered by machine guns on the top of mine-cranes, at a height of 3Ooft, and another 100 machine guns were posted in the cemetery, in the southwestern suburbs.

Having tasted battle and bayoneted Germans in two trenches, the British, reckless of their lives, attacked an obstacle desperately, stood up under deadly machine guns, and forced a way through entanglements.

One of the most extraordinary incidents in this grim scene was when a company of Highlanders, charging through the smoke-laden mists, encountered an un usually tall German, stone dead, with a bullet in his brain, and his face blackened with battle grime, standing erect mysteriously, without a prop. The sight was so startling and uncanny that the Highlanders parted on either side as though they had seen a spectre. A great tide of soldiers poured into the breach, swarmed forward for three-quarters of a mile, and entered Loos.

Undoubtedly the Germans were surprised and demoralised by the rapidly sweeping strength of the attack, and surrendered wholesale. One midget Highlander appeared in a doorway and shot down three Germans, when the remaining 30 cried for mercy. In some places the resistance was prolonged, the rapid fire from the cellars causing heavy losses to the besiegers, but the cellars were now full of dead, the result of bombing parties flinging grenades from the head of the stairways. The colonel of one of the first battalions to enter Loos established a signal station in a convenient house, which was soon the target for the German guns. Suspecting treachery, the British searched the cellars and found three Germans, and the latter disclosed the presence of an officer in a deeper cellar, telephoning and directing the gun fire. This incident reveals the highest form of courage. A lucky shot would have meant the Germans’ death as well as that of the British. The German officer died bravely, a supreme sacrifice of courage. GREAT WORK OF “KITCHENER’S ARMY.” SIR JOHN FRENCH’S CONGRATULATIONS. LONDON. September 29. Mr Phillip Gibbs continues his narrative ; The battalions having fought through Loos struggled ahead towards Hill 70, a mile distant—rising ground from which the Germans swept the road with machine guns and shrapnel. An incessant storm of fire from the windows of cottages in St. Auguste raked our approach. The first British reached Hill 70 at 10 o’clock, and clung to the position all clay long with heroic endurance. Fresh troops relieved them at 11 o’clock in the evening, carrying on the struggle through Sunday, when the position was organised, and the advance continued with varying success. The attack on Saturday northward towards Hulluch was another triumph for “Kitchener’s Army,’’ who formed a good proportion of the troops engaged. The struggle here was fierce. We advanced under a terrible fire after the first assault, which was carried out swiftly. Then the

machine guns were brought * forward rapidly in considerable numbers, and they inflicted heavy losses, bayonets finishing the work. The British stormed forward for three miles and reached the outskirts of Hulluch, which were bristling with machine guns. Curing the fiercest hand-to-hand fighting the Germans yielded ground wherever we engaged them closely, but the British were repeatedly swept back by a tempest of bullets. This continued for two whole days, the mud-caked lads resting in the rear. After tramping over the shambles of the battlefields they looked proud and exultant, because they'had led a great assault which broke the Germans’ line. It was one of the hardest encounters ever fought, and resulted in a victory for the British arms. Sir John French rode about these mining villages leaning on a horse and speaking to groups of men, personally thanking them for their gallant work. THE KAISER WRATHFUL. LONDON", September 29. After a conference with the .‘German war chiefs the Kaiser rushed in a special train to the western front. The British are now closely engaged with the enemy’s third line of defences. AMSTERDAM, September 29. Two German generals have been dismissed, it is believed, in connection -with Saturday’s defeat. The German newspapers are discussing the question of sending General von Hindenburg or General von Falkenhayn to the west front. GERMAN. OFFICIAL REPORT. ROME, September 29. A Berlin communique states : The enemy’s attempts to break through our lines in the west were continued with bitterness. A counter-attack following a fruitless British attack lad to the recapturing of part of the territory north of Loos. Fierce British attacks from Loos broke down with heavy losses. We repulsed repeated stubborn French attacks at Souchez and Neuville. All the enemy’s attempts in the Champagne region were unsuccessful. Constantly advancing waves of French attackers north-west of Souain broke down before the inflexible resistance of the Baden and Westphalian regiments. Jhe enemy’s heavy losses during oft-re-peated stormings of the hills at Massiges were in vain.