INCH WORTH A MILE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 14445, 3 November 1917, Page 9

INCH WORTH A MILE.

VALUE OF RIDGES. STRUGGLE OF SUPERMEN. j LONDON, Oct. 10. j Mr Beach Tliomas (Daily Mail) states that every inch gained m Friday's battle ' would .have • Been worth a mile ordinarily.. Some of the British fought 1 forward 1700 yards'. When they re- ' turned no enemy dared follow, so foul '. and cruel their, track. They left Gol- 1 gotha<behind # Five or six miles separate i om- line froni firm land. ; The traversing < of the swamps is a nightmare. y Despite tlie work of the pioneers the - German dead lie as close as railway- ' sleepers round their concrete posts. The I battle moved too quickly to allow them 1 to be- buried. It is all' we can do to '■ save the living. Some Lancastrian 1 wounded were rescued after four days. They were surrounded by German dead. The advarce was made m the most awful conditions. We would have gone any- 1 where m fine weather. It was a most < terrible day for the wounded, as m alternate advances and retirements, they were left m No Man's Land, from which escape was impossible. Tlie Germans, though fighting on the I defensive, had the same trouble. As the result of the battle they wero further up the slope, and along the crest of the road towards Passchendaele. Our capture of 700 .prisoners is the chief marvel. German machine guns were everywhere. If the world has supermen they are those who w-tded* Ravelbeek hips high, and then stormed iron' and concrete with flesh and 1 blood. '"i '. '. TERRORS OF THE MARSHES. Mr Perciyal Phillips (Daily Express) states that the Germans are not moving at night time. They do not dare to i-ely on flares, because they do not give sufficient light; 'and a false step might mean drowning m shellholes. As well as losses by. drowning, many have been lost m the mud. and quicksands are burying , corpses and sucking jn' the living to death. A shell-shocked Australian corporal saw a German lire from a crater at a stretchfer party. He reached the sniper m a single leap and bayoneted him. Australians attacked Staden and Zonnebeke trenches through 100 ' yards of morass, weighted with, kit, entrenching tools, and bombs, and exposed to deadly machine-gun fire. They captured the trenches and bayoneted the gunners, pik ing up the corpses grotesquely round their guns. This was only the beginning of their ordeall AUSTRALIANS IN TROUBLE. The heavier guns were from Augustus Wood and the high ground on, the sides of Passchendaele road. SupC ported on the left by' New Zeaianders, they olosed on the enemy ' outposts and dealt with the lower group of gunners, but the barrage remained intense. Soldiers have seldom accomplished their task m the face of such difficulties.

The Australian;; would have captured the . second hue if they had been supported on the left, but the Ncav Zealanders, attacking a marsh at the bottom of Bellevue, made no headway because of a hot fire from the steepest spur. Rain increased, and the mist deepened, obliterating the* vie*,. -Orders' were given not ta continue tlie second stage of the attack, and the Australians were compelled to withdraw on the right so'' as to escape exposing their flank.