RAPID RETREAT FROM THE AISNE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 14285, 30 April 1917, Page 8

RAPID RETREAT FROM THE AISNE.

GERMANS POISON WELLS AS THEY Rs£J|sJ. *;.-, yy*IMMENSE^;J4A^;Q^^{^NCE[ES SOUTH! ol- ARRAS? 'fi CAY ALK?<mslb-BY^ERO— 5 ' ' £I<ANE&,.;V'.;? * :.. r^ r To-day our "?troops : ■eirtejriiil Peronne. Standing alon&,, thaUatatMiieut. would be sensation eriojjtgfr •fiT^fitttrteh'tofyM *f or Peronne desperately through iriore *! than , two years of waryaui& now? it has-been j the luck of Bjfitrefcrtewps ';^» enter ls, a**' yesterday we entereST' B^pauine. after a' short action with the ,-' enemy's Tearguards. But the_ news does' not staXEC alone. fi. : ..., ... fi ;,? The whole of. Wie old German; line south of Arras+r^'stitotfgT&^onefi'Ta.sb fortress built by the labor ; of vmil"|idns, dug and' tunnelled?'AndrrecMnentedHandtimbered, with thousands of machine gun redoubts, witfe.T.«n*«»mmenße maze of trenches, protected by forests of ' barb-

ed wire, has slipped away as though carried by a landslide, and the enemy is m rapid retreat to neAv lin els many miles away. y LAYING COUNTRY WASTE. | As he goes he is laying fire ajid waste to the countryside north-east of Bapaume, into which we went yesterday j with our troops. East of Peronne, scores of? A'illages are burning; one of them, larger than a village, the toAvn of Atheis, is a flaming torch, visible for miles around; others are smouldering ruins from Avhioh volumes of smoke are rolling up into the clear bluesky;v ,Iv all of the great tract of FraiiGe which the enemy has been forced to abandon to. avoid the menace of a combined' attack, there is no beauty |eftyand, no homesteads nor farms, but ' 'SWfyyblack ruins and devastation. E\*erw.jier6 the enemy is adopting the full cruelty of Avar's malignancy. He leaA'^s poisoned wells -in lus Avake so that if our* Soldiers' horses should drink there theyyAvould die. His first Avas discoverd £t .B&rleaux, Avhere the water was tested,- yesterday aftpr the German retreat. Ift.Avas found to be full of arsenic. Other Ayells' have ,heen found treated m the _ same Avay. o\>er Avatenvays he has * burnt his bridges, crossroads ha\ r e been mined, opening up enormous craters like those' 5 saAV yesterday outside Bapaume. High explosive traps have been placed m the Avay of our patrols to scatter them m fragments if they lack any caution. fi'-fi. fi NO EXACT LINE. .is* impossible for me to-.give our exsc^.line at the present moment. We havfy no exact line, as village after village^has? fallen into our hands since midday our cavalry patrols are overyhiilis and far away, our infantry patrols !&re > pushing forward into neAv territory;, so %; that only the aeroplanes knOTjr th'e v exact- Avhereabouts. ;^^ J one' aviator has just i*epoi*ted : "i-jSSwlr meny.Sre. fighting fires and taking their dingers 'at. places off the map. TfieV are Agoing into pubs Avhich have ♦been burnt out to find' beer which is not T»h#e." ; . ■-•' ' North aiid... west of Bapaume, our fe^iijjbls have gone" beyond the villages of ißufcijuoy, Bihucourt, Favreuil and Sapigofficers riding out on .bic^cl^'to the places were scared to find -themselves; so lonely and believed that the ' enemy must be close at hand, but the fending was still further off. Our cavalry, working up past Logeas Wood, penetrated east of Achiet LeGrand and turned th© German line off the BehagniesEiiviilers road. i{ Rouftd) Peronne, our cavalry reconnoitred, crossing over the Canal Duj Nordy Avhichi Avas dry m parts, as the Germans haA*e blown up the locks. Much! farther south, m the . neighborhood of Nesle, . French and British cavalry patrols came into touch to-day and one of our aviators says he saAV French ciA*ilians waiving flags and cheering the men. '< Tfee Germans have a cavalry screen behind) their rearguards. They A\'ere seeh north of Bapaume and northwards beyond' "'.Reye and! some of them were .chased' by a. British airman at a place called' Enneniain. ' He swooped doAvn like, an albatross, and brought a man off his horse by a machine gun bullet. The Others, stampeded from this terrible tiirdC. -' Last night -oujl\ patrols got into the village of Mont St. Quentin, Avhich is tlie 'chief defence point of Peronne, and thas' morning they 'were jn Moislains. Hajle andi FaAnllaincourt. Until late at night the enemy was still holding trenches on the other side of Peronne, hbrthAvest of Haute Allaines, but they have now gone, and our outposts now look down the valley of Little River Tortille,. a tributary of the Somme, from Moislains to Halle. OPEKONNE DESERTED. This' morning our mounted troops entered Peronne itself, but no enemy Avas there. The only thing there that^looked likfe soldiers Avere two dummies;, which were shot at by our men until this German fake was ,discovei*ed. Many dugouts were on fire and parts of the toAvn were smouldering,, but Peronne •is not utterly destroyed as Avill be -knowtt when civilians come back to see the ruins 6i their homes. Many houses still stand, though-wound-ed m their Avails and roofs. The place is; unlike villages on , the Somme; : battlefields, Avhich are mostly Aviped off the earth. The enemy seems to have abanBeiVed his positions last night at a given time all . along the line, firing heavily until about 10 o'clock. Then tho-gunfire ceased, and not a single gunshbt was heard) as his guns were going back along the dark roads. His rearguards* moved away, leaving behind them their • great defensive works on Bapaume Ridge and fuming villages. It is not for the to say hoAv the Germatj. high command Avill explain .this retreat to the German people. It is a "strategical plan," but not all phrases like that n*ilihid«. the, ? truth that it is indeed a retreat, and that hi' front are the British troopa. , •