SHED ITS BEAMS ON SCENE OF CARNAGE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 14330, 21 June 1917, Page 4

SHED ITS BEAMS ON SCENE OF CARNAGE.

TERRIFIC BA'tTIJS LASTED ALL night. (/, '■' ; ;' "•; song of nightingale floats OUT DESPITE ROAtf, ot'' x ' ' ' AR.TILLERY. SCOTTISH TROOPS IN HAND-TO- -".... .'. . HANTS 'MOHTING., , \By Philip >Gibbs.) War Correspondents' ' Headquarters, ' -, : "■"'■ ' " ' 'May 8. Last night and after daylight thi* morning the enemy's gunfire was very heavy southward 1 from; the neighborhooc of Loos and- Lens and he launched r. violent .counter-attack" against "our. lim north of Fresnoy, captured a few day.' £go, by. the Canadians. Further south >till, at Bullecourt,) the Scots are fight ing at ( clpse quarters, mainly witl bombs, routing the . enemy down tht, trenches and out of the village, regained for a while m the backward and for.vvard drives of this fierce struggle west yyarn of Quean t, where the Hindeiiburj line. is most closely menaced." .-Elsewheri ih the .northern! lines it was a night oi rajds on both sides, and along al* the^ front a night of great artillery fire [ The battle of guns was., watched- from ,ihe old trenches, looking across to Lens and giving a wide sweep on the battk front from -the, field to Loos td tin ground below the sloping shoulder pf the "^imy Ridge. The -sun went down witl a red. glow, and m the twilight there a milky radiance over all this land Scape of war where the gantries and pit aeads< of.. Lievin and Lens were etchec very sharply against the pale blue of tin sky into,, which gradually the, dusk crep' and ''soft* 'rapi clouds gathered an<" shadows were black m the beleaguerec town of ; Lens and m the woods jjelov md before it. ;'■; ' , NIGHTINGALE SANG. : So all tlu'ough the night the battl. of the guns went on. The moon veilei ts face from this horror which made ; hell on earth. , But m a little .wood .• - nightingale sang all through the night In a little wpod m a curve of the crescent of the guns every shell flash lii •t up with a Tight white, so that tin delicate, tracery of the boughs am' branches was ruffled and its tiny.greei leaves, were tremulous, and m the hear if that, thicket the nightingale sang witl little trills and flutters - v of song trying to reach the richer notes, to rise highe: m an ecstatic outpouring,, then warblinf little snatches, of , ipelody. It was th; , old song of love, old as the beauty oJ ohe world. The correspondents listened very sclent, and held their breath. •yAt . a^,wn, . down ; by. ,Bullecpurt, ther< > was another 'fight.' Some., Scottish ,tro,op: " * fought their .way .into : the. village aiu dragged .out -thirty . prisoners, makinj /ndre than a. hundred since, yesterday md pur guns smashed;' up -thd- work, of :' German division trying- to- dig a trench -md;' killed- many, of the diggers. fTp th< 4ast \'dt . Bulle'court, "the Au9tnalian. Strengthened their position. LIT UP BY MOON. A. full, moon rose, -three-qjiarters. hid len by clouds, but shedding down a siif - fused light which seemed to float like r v>r\ght mist over {bis great stretch oi barren earth, whefe, since; the: beginning 6f the war, scores -<o'f t jthbu'sands oi ' mer have been fighting 'ceaselessly. SwollepTips .of. ; craters, piles of broker >andbags and; trpnchesj long ..belts of . spiked wire,, tangled coils y strewn bvei ireas of desolate, grpund, where. . npthihf lives but, rats, which gnaw among tht bopes" of ,, nieh, and livid search> lights' .of lire .revealed! ■'• all between little, 'piiok spells pf darkness. Thisgrouhc? was the storm cehtre ( ,of the. Ayor*ld's. wa) last night. There have been^ many great bombardments, but never .one ao loud as tliis, because of the ..° ( stra.nge. atmbsnheric influen'd'e. of last piglit. ,Tlif 4i,xemy was spelling. , tlie lower /.slopes ,of Vimy/.Ridge savagely, ana', as each t sheli "?in;st 4 ii.made a gruntingv-whopf^like the -park ".of "some .enprn^ous| beast. : STIRRED WITCHES'. CAULDRON. . The witches' cauldron was being stir, red' at' Lobs and Hulluch, ahd m Lievhi md boiling oyer to Angles arid Boia'de Baymont, came a tremendous clamor, with heavy crashes, which rap but' 'under rain Clouds "with a long.', rippling echo like - ; a '.'thunderclap that breaks across-' a long stretch of sky. There : were 'other sounds m this devil's chorus of nightmore abominable under the high moon — terrific hammer-strokes of "the healvy <j;uns, knocking, knocking, with an urgent summons at death's door, "and the lonp rush forward of their , shells; the great collision of German .shrapne^,; bursting pver many fields, with a 'whine of bullets like the snarling of savage little beast's. But worst of all. to .hear was the machine gun fire which; broke, out I ''in gusts around Lens and .. in',' 'the Bois de lleaume aiid away ' by, Hili 70. ' ' A great fire w'e'nt^up" iii, the .German lines ' around' L" 2 ." 8 - • It >pread ' out *like 'i big; red rose' with, flaip'ing^ petals and stayed there for a;n hour. Ammunition dumps, were hit by our .sliells, apd all tlie hillsides were red with the ipf ernal glory of their fir,e. ...