SECOND BATTLE OF YPRES.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 13717, 22 June 1915, Page 8

SECOND BATTLE OF YPRES.

USE OF POISONOUS GAS

BRITISH TROOPS" URDEu-U/.

•LONDON, April 30. The following is taken from Eyewitness's" official report of the second Battle of Ypres: — Taking advantage of tlio circumstances that this season the wind frequently blows from the north, the urermans secretly brought up apparatus for emitting asphyxiating gasfrlong their front line opposite the, Allies west of Langemark. Between 4 and 5 p.m. on Thursday, April 22nd, the Germans put their plan into operation. A cloud of poisonous vapor was seen to roll swiftly before the wind upon the line held by the French Colonial Division. Allowing time for the fumes to take effpct upon the troops facing them, the Germans charged iorward over practi-' caJly an uiu'esisting enemy m their immediate front, and, penetrating through, the gap thus created, passed on silently and swiftly to the south and west. The first intimation that all was not well to the north was conveyed to our troops holding the left of the British line between 5 and 6 p.m. by the withdrawal of some of the French Colonials and the sight of a wall of vapor, following them. Our flank thus exposed, the troops were «r<iared to retire on St. Julieu, with Vojus left parallel to, but w«»t of the high road. ...-,'. The splendid resistance of these troops, who saved the situation, has already been mentioned by the Com-mander-in-Chief. About this period our men m reserve near Ypres, seeing shells" bursting, had gathered m. groups discussing the situation, and questioning some scattered bodies of Turcos who had appeared suddenly, -i staff- officer rode up, shouting, "Stand to your arms," and m a few minutes the troops had fallen m and were marching northn wards to the scene of the fight behind" the wall of vapor which had swept across the fields. Through the-wood and' over the hedgerows came the German firing line, the men's mouths and noses, it is stated,, being protected by, pads soaked m a solution of bicarbonate of soda. Closely following them, again, came the supports of these, troopsy hurry-, ing torward with their formation somewhat broken by the obstacles encountered m their. path;' A battery of '4:7in. guns a little .beyond the left of our, line was surprised and overwhelmed by them m a moment. Farther to the rear, and "m a more easterly direction, were several field batteries, and' before.,, .they, could come into action the Germans^ .svere within a few hundred yairds. 'Not a gun, however, was lost. One battery, taken m the flank.oawjitfg round and fired on the eneniy ftt point-blank : ' range' and checked the rtash. .Another opened fire with the gtais pointing almost m opposite directions ; the 1 ., enemy being on three sides of <heni. FIGHTING EVERY STEP. It was under a very -Heavy cannonade opened about this time by the Germans, and threatened by the advance of vastly superior numbers* tha£ our infantry" on the left steadily, and without any sign of confusion, slowly retired to St. Julien, fighting every step. Help was not long 'm arriving, for some of "our reserves near Ypres had stood to arms as soon as they were aware of the- fact tha£ the French line had beep forced, and the officers, on their own initiative, without waiting t for orders, led them, forward to meet the advancing enemy, who by this time were barely ; two miles' from the .town. These battalions at-' tacked the Germans with the ,jj>ayonet,. and then ensued a- melee m which our men more than held their; own, both,, aides losing very heavily. One German battalion seems to have been specially severely handled, the colonel being captured among several other , prisoners ... Other reinforcements were thrown m as they came up and when night fell the 1 fighting continued m the moonlight, Our {troops driving back the enemy by repeated bayonet charges, m the course of which our heavy guns were recaptured. In the early morning of Friday, 23rd, we delivered a strong counterattack northwards m co-operation with ilie French. Our advance" progressed dome little distance, reaching the t edge, of a wood about half a mile " west of St. Julien and penetrating it here. Our men got into the Germans" with the bayonet, and the latter suffered heavily. One man-^and the case was typical; off the spirit shown by our troops?— -who had had his rifle smashed by a bullet,' continued to fight with an entrenching tool. About 11 a.m., not being able to progress further, our troops dug themselves m, a line then running from St. Julien, practically due west for about a mile, whence it curved south westwards before turning north to the canal near Boessinghe. Broadly speaking, on the section of the front then occupied by us the result of the .operations had been to remove to some exte.ht the wedge •which- the Germans had driven into the Allied line, and the imanediate danger wag over. During the afternoon our counter-at-tack made further progress south of Pilken, thus straightening the line still more. Wlien the morning 5 of April 24 c&me the situation remained much the same/ but the enemy, who had thrown :sev;eral bridges across the canal, continued to 1 gainjground to the west, on cur front. The Germans under the cover of their gas made a further attack b etween 3 and 4 : a. m . . to the east, <of St. Juliert, and forced back portion .of our line. Nothing else m particular .occurred until about midday, when large bodies of the enemy -were seen advancing down the .Ypres-Poeleapelle road towards St. Julien. Soon after a very strong attack developed against tbs* village, and a section of the line east .of it. A GALLANT HANDFUL. Under the pressure of these fresh maeses pur troops were compelled to fall back, contesting every inch o|,the, ground, and making repeated counterattacks. Until late at night a gallant handful, some 200 to 300 strpng, held cut m St. Julien. On the morning :y? Sunday, the fourth day of the battle,' we made a. strong counterattack on Ht. Julien, gaining some' ground, bnt were "checked m front of 'ifttf' Vliiage. In the afternoon the Germans made repeated assaults m great strength on our Jine near Broodseihde. TKese ; were f backed up by a tremendous artillery ' bomjbardfyent, and the throwing of asphyx-, iating bombs, but all were beaten off with great slaughter, and 46 . prisoners fell into our hands. When night came the situation remained unchanged. This determined offensive on the pfcft 6f?th'e, «nemy, altllough. it has menaced Ypre* iiteelf, haa not so far the appearance, of si great effort to break through the ljhe, and to capture the Channel ports, such as that made m October. Its initial success was gained by the surprise' fen«dered possible by the use of a Series, 'which Germany had pledged herself not! fto employ." ! ' "'''' ' j The following is the atory of one who took part m the fighting : -r-."Jt ' was about half-past four o'clock m the afternoon of Thursday that our picket ''"te-< ported jt jsudden retiring movement oh the part of our French Allies on the left of the Canadian division; oii the ■ Ypres-Langemarcfc roa4. A ; efcong north-east wind which was Wowing {com the enemy lines across the French trenches became charged with a jstekeniiig, suffocating odor, which warf'tfecognised as proceeding from some form of jioisonous gas. ' VIVID GREEN WALL. •"The smoke moved like ft vivid green wall, some 4ft m height, for --several hundred yards, extending to within 2DO yards of the extreme left of pur lines, It gradually rose higher"" and obscured the view from the level. The rifle fire which had hitherto been increasing m volume tended to become more . and more erratic, as is always the case when* men fire at random or without any jolear idea of their mark. Boon strange ■cries were heard, and through, the green mist now growing thinner and patchy there came a mass of dazed, reeling men, who fell as they passed through our ranks. The greater number were unwounded, "but bore upon their faces the marks of agony. The retiring men were among the finest soldiers -of the world, whose sang-froid and courage have been proverbial. They were reeling through ua, and around us, like drunken men. Many died." The same correspondent writes >— "Some of our fellows who had been on £t few hours* leave came m from

Ypres, which is 'town' for us. They said that they were having a bath, but the occasional shell-fire from the German trenches, which is the every-day programme, became too hot to stand. They dashed into St. Alost at half -past 4 o'clock, to find the place being furiously/ bomb'ar&ed, or, rather, that Ithe road along, the eastern bank of- the canal was being pounded by shell, and already full of dead and dying horses and smashed-up waggons. The object of the enemy was clearly to prevent reinforcements and ammunition from being brought up. Frightened women and children, who form the non-military population of Ypres, x were already" streaming out into the fields, where many lost their lives. At a later stage this same correspondent'took part m an attack upon Germans hidden m a small wood, who were working round the British rear. He writes:— "lt wanted but a few minutes to midnight when we got to a hollow which was, at the most, 300 yards from a wood. The moon now reappeared at intervals, and we could have done without her. The shrapnel fire had completely ceased, and we had a spell of silence which could be felt. Whispered orders were given to fix bayonets, which were obeyed. In a Hash overcoats, packs, and even officers' equipments were dropped, and we immediately advanced m light order. Scarcely had we reached a low ridge m full -yiew of . the. wood when a perfect hell of fire was loosed on us from rifles and ma-chine-guns, which the Germans had placed m position behind the undergrowth skirting the wood. Instantly the word was given to charge, and on we rushed, cheering, yelling, and shouting, and -swearing, straight for the foe. At first the Germans fired a little too high, and our losses until we came within fifty yards of them were comparatively small. Then some of our chaps began to drop. Then the whole line seemed to melt away, .only to be instantly, closed up again. Cheering and yelling all the time, we jumped over the bodies of the wounded and tore on. Of the Germans with the machine-guns not one escaped, but those inside the wood "stood up to us m most dogged style. We were so quickly at Work that those at the edge of the %vood could not have got away m any case. Many threw up their hands. We di<, not refuse quarter. As we pressed on into the wood itself, the struggle became a dreadful hand-to-hand conflict. We fought m clumps and batches, and the living struggled over the bodies of tlie dead and dying. At the height vr the conflict, while we were steadily driving the Germans before us, the moon burst out, .The flashing bayonets flashed." like; quicksilver, arid, faces were lit lip ..as- hy limelight. Sweeping dn we 'came upon lines- of trenches which had been hastily thrown up and could not be stubbornly, defended. Here all who resisted .were " bayoneted. Those who yielded weffe sent to the rear. The trench fighting presented a spectacle which is not pleasant to recall. GREATEST ARTILLERY BATTLE. A correspondent with the British Army thus describes the scene : — "The Germans have begun" using asphyxiating gas. The north wind blew to-day, and they threw huge quantities of yellow •jjojson into the air. On a hill m Belgium, five miles from YpTes, an officer called my attention to the fact that "there was a sulphurous odour m the .air. Whether it was German gas or smoke from hundreds of shells break/ingj. along the sixty miles of Flanders stretched out before us we could not be certain. The view afforded a sight that might have stunned Julius Caesar Qr Napoleon. It was impossible to say how many- cannon were being- used m this , greatest artillery battle m the history of the world. At one small bridge across the Yser canal twenty German guns fought ' eighteen English and French guns. Late this evening the German guns were. silenced. The French 'seventy-fives' were fired so rapidly that they sounded' like an endless Toil of thunder multiplied by a thousand! The expenditure of ammunition is fabulous. As far as our glasses could carry we could see the while bursts of shrapnel, the black burst of German giant guns, or the feathery floating clouds of anti-aircraft shells, which broke m the sky where both German and English aeroplanes soared. l Behind our hill Belgian peasants were ploughing. Further behind them, m a meadow, we could ■see men playing bootball. I discovered later that some of the men m the match were- to march five miles to-night and enter t"he trenches m the maelstrom of fire which we were ' holding."—Melbourne Argus correspondent.