STRUGGLE IN THE WEST.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14607, 17 May 1918, Page 6

STRUGGLE IN THE WEST.

BRITISH HEAVIES NEARLY ALL GOT SAFELY AWAY. <■ ENDLESS COLUMNS OF TRANSPORTS. . i HIGHWAYS (rttOKliD WITH REFUGEES; ACOB^t UNKIND TURN b^^ATE With stoical resig nation. (By Philip Gibbs.— Received by Mail.) War Correspondents' Headquarters, France; March. 30. I have said much already about the magnificent courage of the British infantry and their endurance through these tragic days and nights, so "resolute and so strong that they.. haye kept m check the whole weight, almost, of the German army on the Western front, apart from the divisions holding quiet sectors of the linei ' No pl-aise is' tod liigli for these English* Scbttishj arid IWsh battalions of the 21st ; sist,. ( l?thj 3oili, 47th, 63rd, 18tli, dnd. other gloHous divisions, who, without resV'or sleep for several days, and nights, kept back this human avalanche. But the British gunners also are beyond all words of praise and gratitude because of their unfailing endeavors. Many of their guns wero overwhelmed a week ago, m the wild storm of fire flung over the British V lines, f but those who escaped from this monster bombardment have kept their batteries : m 'action ever since. The officers artd rile'it of tile gun teanls have riot spared themselves to protect the infantry arid dtisttoy the enemy. . . ; , .. I have seen some ol them m action during this fighting, and have niai'velled at their coolness. At •times iheir officers are hoarse with shouting the word "fire" and dazed for lack of sleep, but clear : headed enough to see the S; (MJ.v signal and get a straight target". 1 ' They saved nearly all our neavy gunsfl and have trudged back over the battlefields,, over the terrible, broken ground betweeii Bapaume and Albert, and between places like Gouzeaiicoul't and Ham, urging on their sioW-gbirig cateUpillats and encouraging the men* GUNS AND AIRPLANES BUSY. The British heavies are ready for more work again, if ever there is a chance of fixed positions, and- meanwhile the lighter guns are keeping, up the chorus of fire along the whole sweep of the enemy's line. It is the fire maintained by these gunners and by the waggon drivers who have brought up ammunition so that there is always a heap of shells around evety battet'y, . that has inflicted such fearful losses on the German troops, apal't from the never-silent blast of the machine-gun fife ttnd rifle fire of our infantry outposts. The enemy has also suffered from attacks by our airmen, so sensational and destructive that the main toads haVe been cleared of his troops and they have been forced to -take to the open country. I know of many oases,, of air- . men of ours \vho, during this battle, have gone out over the; Bapaume-Albex't road and other ! highways behind the German lines, flying no higher than 500 feet, and dropping bombs, into masses of moving troops, and after scattering large columns, chasing them' with dead. ly machine-gun fire and inflicting many casualties. On Thursday morning our airmen were flying like that over the roads along the Soihme from Bray and it was they who brought back' news of the new concentration for the attack which began soon after- they had flung their challenge of death into these assemblies. • : ' . NIGHTS INTENSELY COLD. ' I must add to , what I said lef oral about the divisions which 'have- been jn 1 this fighting, though nothing -that -I could say would picture the splendor of these men among whom I have been today. They are dog-tired and; dirty, arid a cruel east wind was cutting them after a. night of intense cold m the lines. They were unshaven, they had tied shawls around their heads under their steel hats. They were powdered with dust and chalk, but they held their heads high and their limbs .straightened up as their bands marched at the head of the columns. And m other fields and roads were bodies of .men waiting to go into action or just out of battle, sleeping m every attitude of resjtfulne^s, with their heads on each other's shoulders, or hunched together for warmth, or with their jaces covered by blankets and hairy coats tucked up to their ears. Endless columns of transports move along the roads between the guns and gun-waggons, and the drivers-nod over their lorries, or sit' awake on bundles of supplies, with one arm around some dear, ridiculous little dog, which belongs to almost every service waggon, an innocent comrade representing to ' these lads the human side of life and its ' affections. . PITIFUL REFUGEES: There is another,,crowd on the roads, i pitiful but heroic, , It is a crowd of refugees who are abandoning. $iei many ! villages now m 'the aone "of war and the l many small towns on the edge of it, 1 and all fleeing from the approach of the enemy, whom they fear more than cold and hunger, more than goverty and misery, more than the loss of ' everything that was theirs m ,the world. I saw the first tide of these poor people when the Germans came near to Ham and Peronne and Roye. Some of. them, had been once m the hands of the Germans, and at this second menaco they left their homes and their fields **hd their shops, and came treking westward and southward. Ono'sf heart bleeds to see these refugees, and ilf'is the most tragic aspect of these days. There are many old people among them, old women m black gowns and caps, who come hobbling very slowly down the highway of war, and old men with bent backs, who lean heavily on their gnarled .sticks as the guns go by and the fighting men. I saw one old man near Hani who was trundling along a wheelbarrow, and on this was spread a mattress, and on that was his wife. She looked 90 years of age with her white, wrinkled face, and she was fast asleep like a little child. Many children are on 'the roads, packed tight into farm carts "with household furniture and bundle^; of -clothing and poultry and pigs' anol ' new-born lambs. The noise of the gunfire is ber hind them, and they move faster when it grows louder. They ate i. very brave these boys arid gi»ls and these old people. There is hardly any weeping or any look on their faces of grudge against this unkind turn of fate. They seem •= to accept itr with stoical resignation, with Mnosl matter-of-fact courage, and their only answer to pity is a smile and the words: "C'est la guerre." Those are words I first heard m the early weeks of the war, and hoped never ,to • hear again, : . ; - "BOSSY" SAT DOWN. * Many of these people trek m famuy groups and gatherings of families frofti one/ village. Small boys and girls drag tired cows after them. The other day one of these cows leaned against every tree she passed and then sat down aiid the girl with her looked, , around helplessly not knowing What' to : : do. This: morning I saw the girT wearing a veil and dressed m an elegant way, taking the cow with her. She was quite alone on the road. It is queer and touching that most of these fugitives wear their best clothes as though on a fete day. It is because they are clothes they want to save, and can only save- by wearing them m their flight. ' . In one small town tho fear . of the German entry came at night, a bright, moonlight night into which there came many German bombing squadrons. The citizens had shut up their '■ shops and stood about talking anxiously. Tiien fear and rumor spread among them, and all through the night' there was an exodus of small families; and solitary girls and comrades m misfortune, stealing away Hke shadows from homes they loved ; from the little fortunes of their shops j from all their normal ? life, into the open country where the moonlight lay white and cold on the fields. Behind them bomfjs were being dropped and some of their houses were destroyed. C'est la guerre. ~ »: ... .