FIGHT FOR FERRYMAN'S HOUSE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 13601, 5 February 1915, Page 9

FIGHT FOR FERRYMAN'S HOUSE.

FRENCH EXPLOIT CROWNED

WITH SUCCESS

DEADLY MIDNIGHT tSTItUGULIvS

A graphic account of the fight for the Ferryman's House — mentioned m the French official report m the cables early m December — and also a night attach by Germans on rafts, is given by Mr Basil Clarke m the Daily Mail. The latter was, he says, one of the must bloodthirsty encouivters that have taken place m the cathedral town of Pervyse, the scene of many fights. Behind the town, writes Mr Clarke, are the floods. The Germans had built rafts. They lashed together great l°o s and baulks of timber, covered the frames with lighter timbers, and buoyed up the whole structure with empty petrol cans. On these rafts they mounted machine guns, making the craft a really quite serviceable water aisji. AX ATTACK BY RAFJ*.

It was blowing and raining fiercely. The rafts were manned by men for the machine guns, and by men with poles, who poled the rafts cautiously along m the- darkness. Behind the raits came German infantrymen. They waded m the. water, which m places came up to their necks. Their rifles they carried dry above their heads.

The French sentry standing on the bank fired his rifle for an alarm almost at the second the German machine guns opened fire. For a time there was the grimmest fighting on the dyke side. It was almost entirely bayonet work. The French fought like demons ami the Germans, wet and cold with their bath, could not withstand them. HEAVY SLAUGHTER.

They Mere pushed back foot by foot towards the water. Man fell upon man. and pushed one another down the bank. The slaughter m this "confined spa,ce Mas dreadful. A hundred Germans were, killed outright, a hundred drowned, over a hundred taken prisoners, and many were wounded. The number of Germans who got back through the water to their lines was fewer than fifty.

Sim ulta.neously x with this v iight another action of the fiercest- kind was talcing place, at, Merckem, on tho 'southern bank of the Yser, for tho Ferryman's House. Which had been occupied by the GeiTuiaus for a month and turned into a miniature fort. HAXD-TO-HAND FIGHTING.

The French colonel m charge of troops near by decided that the ' Germans m Ferryman's House were a nuisance, and ho resolved to move them.

The request for volunteers was made #n duo form at midnight on Thursday. Four hundred men were chosen, of whom 100 were men of the African troops of the French.

The German machine guns opened fire as the Frenchmen were on the end of the bridge. They went through the hail of shot, at a dash,, .and though a score of them fell m the first minute or two, as many more crossed the bridge,- and two minutes' run brought them to the house.

The Germans fought tirst from the covering walls outside, but were shot down, bayoneted, or slashed with knives. The fighting was ferocious. GERAIANS SURRENDER. Then the Germans got indoors and m the outbuildings, all of which had been loopholed ready to withstand an. attack. The door was bashed m with an axe. From that point "onwards the French troops made their way with the bayonet. t On the ground floor a,nd upstairs the fight waged hand to hand all the time. The defence was beaten down. Germans who got m the topmost room at the top of an upright ladder alone escaped the blades of the French, and when all assistance but theirs had been overcome they surrendered. It was a brilliant feat of arms — quite after the old-world style of fighting, and the lieutenant who had charge of it — quite a young man, too — was most warmly commended for his work.