AGAINST OVERWHELMING ODDS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14567, 1 April 1918, Page 3

AGAINST OVERWHELMING ODDS

I HOW THE FRENCH CAME IN. j IPOILUS JUMP INTO HAND-TO-HAND ENCOUNTER. SLAUGHTER OF ENEMY WAS MOST TERRIBLE. CHARGE BY BRITISH CAVALRY. J (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) (Received April 1, 10.10 a.m.) , i PARIS, March 30. From the French standpoint the battle opened on the evening of the 21st, when several divisions rushed up motor waggons to the aid of the British right, which was thus enabled to „ withdraw along the Crozat Canal. Another French force reached Chauny on the 22 ud, and was instructed to keep m touch with the retiring British right. The French on the 24th repelled repeated attempts to cross the Oise, the French line extending to Noyon and Lassigny. Now that. the initial danger is passed, it can be said the Germans were very near breaking the Allied front m this region .on the 25th. The pressure increased on the 186 th and 27th. The French front was pressed back to the Avre river, then to Montdidier. The enemy pressure was tremendous. There were only sixteen German divisions on fifty miles of front before the battle-., Hindenburg and Ludendorff commenced the great gamble with thirtyeight, and by Thursday eighty-seven had been identified, representing practically a million of men, though the sector was only one-eighth of the Western front between the sea and the Alps. French war experts believe the Germans are unable to bring up more than forty divisions > more. The slaughter of the enemy was most terrible. The. country roads. were strewn with German dead m great piles, the bodies being collected after each day's fighting m order to keep open the ]anes for traffic. Only on Thursday and Friday, did the enemy begin to burn and bury the dead. Previously he had not even time tc remove all the wounded. The spectacle., of slaughter has an inevitable effect on the fresh German troops, many of whom are .youngsters. French officers speak in v glowing terms of the stubborn courage of the British. One narrates : .Whe^i Petain. thrust m his troops, the British were* outnumbered four to one. The French colonels told their troops .of the seriousness of the position. Their bravet British friends 1 ' were m danger of being overwhelmed. .One anxiety of the pbil'us was: Shall we get there m time? " When they crossed the edge of the 1 Oise plateau the French found themselves amidst a hand-to-band struggle between the Germans and the British. The newcomers deployed and got among the British. No orders were necessary. The Anglo-French charged,"' and though sometimes fighting against eight 'to one odds they forced back the Bodies, and the original positions were temporarily won back. , The Germans resumed the battle at 4 o'clock next morning, without artillery preparations. Ten times m rapid succession their waves swept forward, and ten times they were hurled back m disorder. Twice the British cavalry, "who made a splendid spectacle, intervened and charged the enemy masses'. Superb m contempt' of death, the horsemen broke up- the German columns. The Allies had withstood terrible assaults, but at last saw the French reserves coming up full of magnificent ardor,- eftger for the^ -frayj : : ; \ ■:• -i > Prisoners describe their losses as enor,. mous, mainly due to machine guns. The Eighty-eighth Division was almost wiped out, and the 206 th very badly mauled. Correspondents state that all tl7§: dead found on' the battlefield were ' stripped of their clothes and equipment, which the Germans collect systematically and send to the rear, owing to the shortage of clothing and leather. British and French -uniforms are evidently collectedfor use In some deceptive manoeuvre. The prisoners were astonished at" the comparatively small number of British and French dead left on the battlefield. The German commanders were. aston : , ished at 'the Franco-British resistance./ They had told the men it would be all over m a fewdaysf. ; • • J