CANADIANS IN GAS MASKS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 14421, 6 October 1917, Page 8

CANADIANS IN GAS MASKS

"■'* — — .^^E— " 1 * — * ' FIERCE RA^D NEAR LENS. ; BOMBING OF DUG-OUTS. Before dawn on. a recent morning th Canadians made a. small -and. successful attack to 'the so^th-feast of Avion, phe of, the .suburbs of -Lens, "and captui-jedi : about •'. forty unwounded '' and twenty' ' wounded prisoners, with not much Ids? ' to themselve-5, writes* Mr. Philip Gibbs. { It -w^is'/m the ground 'where the enemy ' was ,'• shelling y«?ry steadily yesterday.. 1 After dark nis gunners began to use ga-Y ' shells, so that when Canadians "; ' < tacked they went' bver.in their masks- -J a' terrifying sight to German soldici-s, j seeling '; these figures ' loom upon tl : v •*■ through the pale ' gloom of the" nigb c Our guns put down « heavy barrage! b * fore the Canadians left their' Frenches. J and smashed the' ground about the brick Jfields south-east of Avion* -on. the -way *to * a steep, embankment, along the railway jj lino from Mericourt to . Lens. The Ger- * mana had strong . positions here, with *: ti^eftch " mbrt&rs a,nd .maehinecguns", an v behind, them $$..the ;^ ' r v of bl^-styie iclug-outs,. very ,d ->i- " \ Jtrid'' providing, good 'cover front '; hear | shells. . , ,v . „'.'■>• ' dd ' .' . ; These places had just been' inhabited .*: by st^me troops fresh from Russia, wh *~ had cOme up to -relieve another divjsiti- *jj and a.f*ter .*•«, long period of quietude or Jj! the Russian front they did-, not L . ■-*■ understand the British wa'jy qf fighting.. v and so^wei'e jeasy. -in. the : .T minds;' T -.Qanadian-s " were oil "their, pptposts a y Second or two ' after the barrage lift <* y and on a front of 600 yai'd^-or Iso car- t ried the enemy's positions w-ithou^. mu> ■ trouble or resistance There; was jiai-f-^ ""■" fighting on*, the next, go.^il. tihe brickfields below the 'embankment; Tlv' Germans from Russia' made a^ideeperate efforfc to' fling back, our men,;, arid for • few minuteij- there was some fierce fi.? V ing. Whether groups, of, these : men' fir « into the •*-' dug-puts behind them, *oi whether • thoso. who .'• had been dowji ; them stayed there, I do not know, bn' what is- certain iis ■'•> that many: : Ger man A soldiers werei. deep.. iiiuJjbose underground hiding-places ; ivheuj^e.Qßiiiadi^ns a peared at Ytbe ,daa4c. entries, and they r fused .to, obey the suramons to surrender, Sp tliey wer© bombed, ; jn ..their hple. and must hay© suffere4^greatil-03sr.

It was a fierce, grim business by those, men m masks, ugly-tempered, no doii' * after ai day of high explosives and grs The enemy from Russia has learnt terrible lessoii. Liltet' iil the morn 'in he bombarded the Canadians violently, and made a counter-attack, before | which our furthest outposts fell batik without losing so far the stretch of br.-t fields which the ma-in attack had gnY j cd.- It is a minor episode, but not without importance.