FIGHT IN THE SAND DUNES

Otago Witness, Issue 3309, 15 August 1917, Page 55

FIGHT IN THE SAND DUNES

BRITISH OFFICERS DIE BACK TO BACK.

LONDON, July 15. Router's correspondent at the British headquarters on the west front graphically describes the German attack on our new front in Belgium on July 10, to which, he incidentally remarks, homo military critics manifestly attach exaggerated importance. "The scene of the fighting," he says, "is a tumbled-looking stretch of sand, sparsely covered with brownish grass, in some places the sand rises into little bluffs from the ribbed foreshore. Elsewhere it shelves gently to the surf. The greatest height of the ground the enemy occupied is 60ft above sea level. Numerous gullie§ and holes afford good hiding places, but there is indifferent natural shelter from gunfire owing to the loose character of the sand.

" The position was impossible of conversion into a line of strong defence, although the French, during their long tenure of the sector, had made the best of it. The enemy's artillery swelled to an ominous uproar early on July 10, being directed against 600 yards of our front lino trenches parallel to the eastern bank of the Yser. After an hour the guns were directed upon our support trenches, and an hour later on the crumpling ground west of the river The fire was then shortened to the first range, and the guns repeated the methodical bombardment, being largely assisted by great aerial activity. Our guns, meanwhile, were thundering a reply. During tho morning German shells destroyed the bridges across tho Yser, between the sea and Nieuport lock, destroying the possibility of reinforcintr tho front line.

" The position of the King's Royal Rifles became untenable, and the staff moved into a tunnel nearer the sea. All tho breastworks to Lombartzyde had been levelled, and trenches were rapidly being wiped out. It was now evident that the Germans meant to launch an infantry attack, and the British officers dispoSed their men to receive the assault. The Germans were seen massing at 6 in the evening. A wounded Northamptonshire sergeant volunteered to swim tho Yser as the only practicable way of reaching and warning the troops on the right as to what was preparing. When ho was across the river he saw three heavy waves of German marine infantry advancing. The sergeant reached his objective, and delivered his message, in consequence of which a bomb stop was hastily thrown up, machine guns placed in position, and the attackers were prevented from deploying beyond this point. " The Germans advanced along the sea shore. Our ranks were now so thinned that the defence consisted of email detached handfuls of men. They put up a magnificent fight against overwhelming odds, particularly the King's Royal Rifles and the Northamptons. A party of German bombers, and another with flame-thiowers. attacked the tunnel in which the headquarters staff of the King's Royal Rifles was sheltering from the bombardment. The last seen here was a party of five officers standing back to back. Some of the men who were pressed back to the river bank plunged in and swam across. One soldier, amid a hail of bullets, swam across, and obtained a rope. He secured the end and swam back, thus establishing a mean-"-whereby many who were unable to swim escaped. There were many other instances of the glorious spirit of the men. " The fight was concluded by 7 o'clock The Germans did not consider it safe to take advantage of the success won. and they limited themselves to an attempt to consolidate our old support trench some hundreds of yards east of the Yser bank. Their existence has not been a very happy one sinco."