HEROIC HIGHLANDERS AND SOUTH AFRICANS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 14054, 26 July 1916, Page 3

HEROIC HIGHLANDERS AND SOUTH AFRICANS.

ENEMY'S MASSED TROOPS DRIVEN BACK. (The Times.) LONDON, July 25, The Times' correspondent at headquarters, writing on the 21st, says: — Already the operations on the Somme rival Verdun, Never was there a struggle of fiercer intensity, which promises to increase. Describing! the recent German coim-ter-attack oil Delville Wood, the correspondent says : — We already know how the Germans fear the Highlanders, and they have better reason now than ever. Nothing could be finer m any war than the way m which the Scotsmen, after four days of unimaginable strain, flung back enormously preponderating numbers of Germans m the last desperate counter-attack. With a gallant handful of South Africans, they rose from a hastily-made line, and beat back nine or ten battalions of fresh troops. Longueval forms part of Delville Wood, and the Germans are immensely strong, having machine guns and two field guns which are fired at 150 yards point-blank range. Our thin line was tremendously shelled with every kind of weapon for eight hours, the bombardment being worse than anything known before. The South Africans, who had passed through the Scottish two days previously to clear Delville Wood, were driven back m small bands throughout the days, and dropped into the trenches beside the Scots and waited while hell raged. At last the enemy infantry appeared through the wood on all sides, wave after wave. Before their overwhelming -numbers, our men fell back to a reserve trench. ' ' Here, withering the fragments and scraps of companies, and platoons, the Scotsmen and South Africans rallied. Here a haadftd ooun-

• ter-attaoked, and drove back the enemy's massed troops ■ through DelvilJe Wood. Even our shell-shocked wounded, after four sleepless days and nights, took a heroio resolution, and some went forward with the command.