GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14566, 30 March 1918, Page 5

GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS.

1 1 (Continued from Page 3.)

ENEMY PUNISHED HORRIBLY. (Australian aud N.Z. Cable Association.) LONDON, March 28. Mr. Percival Phillips reports: — The batlefront has fluctuated very little in the last 24 hours, and the fighting has slackened off perceptibly between the Scarpe and the Somme. Tho enemy was punished horribly on the old Somme battlefield, where our guus have given von Bulow's massed Army no rest. The Germans can find no shelter from the shells and aeroplane bombs. I do not think a halted army was ever open to such an evil experience or more harassing fire. The ,German prisoners are utterly wjeary', though constantly flogged to fresh endeavor. Tlie divisions which began the drive are again appearing in the van and are expected to continue the hammer blows. Ten German divisions from Flanders and four from . Lorraine have arrived to stiffen, the pressure on our. elastic screen. The German staff is concentrating its chief strength southtwards in the area of the Crown Prince's army. -,, ■■..,.. Prisoners state. that they have had no food except the iron rations. Many of them bitterly resent our [ thorough destruction and . removal of I stores, on which, the. Germans, depended j to replenish their haversacks. j Mr. Philip Gibbs., writing on Wednes- ■ ' day, states": — . , Yesterday ahd to-day the enemy made ! no 'i ur'ther advance on a big scale be-, tween the Bapaume road and Bray, but , paused in his massed attacks to reorganise /the line and bring up artillery. Instead, he made cautious movements across the old Somme battlefield, which resulted, in a renewal of his losses among his assault troops. The weather is marvellously clear, but much colder, and there is a "strong easterly wind, which is painful to our troops spending the nights in the open fields. Our air squadrons report heavy concentrations of- German storm troops behind the Maurepas and the Ginchy roads and the roads around Bapaume are crowded with men,, guns, and cavalry parsing towards Albert, which was the centre of the fighting north of the Somme on Tuesday. The Germans the night before bombed Albert heavily from the air, using the brilliant moonlight and flying low. and picking their targets whenever they saw men moving or horses tethered. But they often hit women and children, who had crept back to their homes. Throughout Tuesday night the British heavies flung high explosives over the mauled battlefield of the Somme. The Germans lay on the earth' in a bitter cold wind without shelter, and a great many were killed as they lay. . Oui" aeroplanes flew over German bivouacs and dropped bombs into their masses, and the turmoil of cries showed that they | were demoralising the enemy.