FIRST PHASE ENDED.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 14050, 21 July 1916, Page 7

FIRST PHASE ENDED.

TALES OF MONTAUBAN: STREETS BLOTTED OUT, LONBDN, July 6. Mr Beach Thomas, the Daily Mail's representative at British Headquarters on the western front, writes : — "The first phase of the battle is ended. The Germans are firmer on their legs, but are too exhausted to re-attack. "The capture of a whole battalion was a brilliant tactical stroke. A weakly held German line was ordered to await reinforcements, and the 186 th Prussian Regiment arrived, but it was too late. The British inifantry was advancing on both sides,, and shrapnel was bursting just over the point of debouchment. from the communication trenches. The Germans held out for a quarter of an hour, and then the remnant came oiit with its hands held skywards. The. men were despatched to the rear so quickly that scarcely another life was lost. • t TWO CAPTURE TWENTY. , ' "Tho capture of prisoners continues. Two of our soldiers at Mametz brought m 20 from on© dug-out, and another 70 were captured m a corridor. "I saw a strange scene at Montauban. A handful df German snipers held an isolated dug-out after the British had swept on. They were firing rapidly, and a few British Tommies advanced to their nest. The inmates refused to surrender. Bombs were thrown m, but the Germans, hid m niches, continued to fire at their assailants. Then the Tommies played their master-stroke. " They dug a hole through the top of 'the dug-out, inserted a strong charge of aaninel (concentrated melinite — one of the tri-nitro .compounds), and exploded it successfully/. "The Montauban front was completely undermined with a complicated system d: caves, but the British, artillery practically demolished this. .-' British and French offioers say that they have never seen a more complete ruin". While tlie appalling work of salvage from tlie battlefield was going on a solitary enemy gun spa.t fire spitefully, but the/British soldiers despised it. They called it 'The Spirfster.' ' MUDDLE OF RETREAT; "The enemy's later quietness was due to the muddle of retreat. He. lacked targets since his aeroplanes-" were driven back and his kite-ball6ohs . destroyed. He was temporarily blind and out of breath. ' '-. " ; "Many tales of British! lieroism. and eagerness and self-sacrifice are told. One man, unable to bear any longer the constant cry '■ for the stretcher-bearers, repeatedly . went out into No Man's Land himself. He saved 20 lives." CIVILL\NS DRIVEN OUT. The Paris correspondent df the Times says that a French officer who accompanied the British describes the capture of La Bdiselle as a wonderful feat. The night'a bombardment smashed houses and walls, tore down treies, turned the trenches into chaotio furrows, and half flattehe-d'out the Communication trenches, which were left littered (with corpses, rifles, ammunition, and clothing. Montauban was practically destroyed, the Germans heavily shewing it. after they lost it. But this did not; prevent the intrepid; British engineers going on with, their -work. Counter-attacks were beaten off everywhere. The Germans; drove out the inhabitants, and not a single Frenchman was to be found when the British entered. Tlie only thing that had grown- since the German occupation commenced was the great\ military cemetery. It was impossible to pick out the locations of streets, or houses, and numerous corpses wero seen, those of Geiihians being by liar the most frequent. The troops rushed Montauban m a mad race, irresistibly carrying away the enemy, who took to their heels, only the deeply-entrenched garrison holding out and firing , machine-guns from every cellar dugout.' Tho persistence of the hand-grenadiers finally overcame the foe.