DAILY NARRATIVE OF BATILE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14610, 21 May 1918, Page 7

DAILY NARRATIVE OF BATILE.

*mWONDERFUL DETACHMENT OF FRENCH-CANADIANS. LED IN DEFENCE OF CITY OF ARRAS. FOUGHT FOR TEN DAYS AND. NIGHTS WITH ONLY TWENTY HOURS' SLEEP IN THAT TIME. (By Philip Gibbs.— Received by Mail.) War Correspondents' Headquarters, April 2.— The battle of which I have been trying to give a daily narrative has been on so vast a, seal© and filled with so many episodes of terrific adventure, and with so many hundreds of thousands of men moving along its lines of fire, that I find it impossible to give the picture the emotion and spirit of it. We out here who knew this thing was coming upon us, creeping nearer every day with monstrous menace, held our breath and waited. /When at last the thing broke, it was more frightful m its loosing of overwhelming powers than even we guessed. Since then all our armies have lived with an. intense understanding of greatness of these days, of their meaning to the destiny of the world ; and -every . private soldier or transport driver or linesman or laborer has beg^ exalted by emotion stronger than tne effect of drugs. They do not say much, these men of birrs, but there is a queer light m eyes shining out of faces greyed by sleeplessness or streaked with blood. PASSION TO' KEEP ENEMY FROM BREAKING LINE. They laugh yin the satne old way at any joke on the f road and sometimes when shells^^rsjAbursting close — as I heard bursts , '.of fftuighter following the crashes of high-Velocity shells about some groups of men a day or two ago ; they go marching ftp to 'the battle-line with unfaltering feet 'and with bands leading them\to the 'edge of the fire zone ; 'it is like*"a pageant as they pass, these lon^columns of men m steel hats, shouldering, heavy packs with rifles slung, and these miles Jong of transport, and these endless jams of muledrivers and waggon-drivers and streams of mounted men. As one onlooker, I hay? been caught up m ihesa tides for hundreds of kilometres from south to north, and the spirit of these armies on the move .'was almost visible. Now they are actually hoping for the attack, so that they can smash more enemy divisions. Anger moves m them because the enemy threw us back m places by overwhelming odds. Now they swear he will he stopped and broken. , Their own losses do not make them mournful. They wipe out of their minds for the. time the horrors and tragedy they have seen. Fierce exultation at the destruction of the enemy, grim pride m repulsing his blood -test attacks, /resolution to pay back find take back has changed the gentlest fellow into a. man who handles his rifle or machine gun with a secret promise to himself ready to stop with his own body another German advance. Passion has taken possession of our men, because; they know if the enemy broke through all they have fought" for woufoV be jeopardised arid this four yeaps of war would be m 'vain for 'us. That seems to me the only explanation of the things that , have been done by the. masses of our men, or by small bodies isolated m rear-guard actions— astounding . things m endurance and .sacrifice.' JUST BACK FROM A FRIGHTFUL CONFLICT. Yestsrday I saw some of those men who had been fighting m the battles. of Arras and Hermies, the scenes of the heaviest checks the enemy has received since March 21. There Vere some London regiments among them, and their band was playing tattoos when the evening set m. The colonel of their battalion — it was a London rifle brigade — came out after a sleep and wash and shave. All his kit had been lost m the dugout, but he borrowed a razor /rom his batman and nobody would have guessed that this smiling man, with perfectly ,bright eyes and easy manners, had iust come out of a battle where many of his men fell around him under frightful shelling, where he had been firing a rifle all day long at crowds of Germans, and where he had seen dead bodies piled on d'?ad bodies as the enemy came up m waves against the blast of our machine gun bullets, and th** fire of our. field artillery. He spoke just a word or two about tlie tragedy of losing many of his best and bravest men, then put that, thought asid'3 and told of their heroic defence and their slaughter of the enemy. PLANNED CAPTURE OF ARRAS ANI> VIMY RIDGE. ' It was a great slaughter m the battle of Arras. From documents found on n German airman? brought down m our lines,.it is now f < certain that . the enemy had the most ambitious objectives, including the capture of Arras and; the turning of Vimy Ridge. Two German divisions were .holding the line north of the Scarpe from Gavvelle to Oppy, and three special shock divisions w-ero assembled to pass through and |urn the ridge from the south, while further south one division was to take the heights east of Arras and a' guard division to take Arras itself. After that their^ objectives ware indefinite. This battalion of Londoners was holding the foremost line . by a system of posts m advance of the battle-line, among them Mill' Post, Bradford Post, and Towie Post. The enemy began the battle by concentrating his bombard? ment of these, while he gassed our support lines and field 1 artillery positions and brought his barrage backwards and forwards over our main defence down there by, Gavrelle and Bailleul and Oppy Wood. Most. of the posts were blotted out utterly. An officer of a London rifle brigade, who . had been out since the beginning of the war, says ■ he- never 'saw such an intense bombardment, and when it lifted 1 - thei Germans came over m clos-a formation, wave after wave. * Behind them at some distance rode the company commanders on horses.™ nnd. behind them their -field artillery. Each man carried a full pack and an extra pair of belts, as for a long march, and rations for six days. They had not travelled far before they were caught by machine gun fire and literally mown down on thai wire. . ' Our field gur\s made targets of them and tore gaps m ihe-ir waves. 'Some of them, got into our .front line, but the London riflemen piilTed down part of their parapet, mada blocks m their trench and kept them back by bombing and rifle fire. An enemy batteiy was unlhnbered and tlvs German officers strolled up with sticks to point out gaps m our wire, to thair men, and were shot down like rabbits. These London men fell . back to our main defensive line a short distance to the rear and. the enemy never penetrated this, though all day long he made fresh efforts from 9.45 m the morning till 7in the evening. The London men. lost many of their comrades m all those hours of bloody, costly fighting, but by heroic defence they foiled the -enemy's most ambitious plan. Our machine gunners say, they were sick of killing. The Colonel of a rifle brigade used 300 rounds, and' each bullet found its mark. London troops on the right of these bore the brunt of the most formidable attacks on the same methods as those above. The Essex men fought like demons, say their officers, m our foremost trenches, and one body of them s«nt back messages that they were going to fight to the death. They did, and not a man came back. Some Scottish battalions were hard-pressed and had to withdraw a short, distance till nightfall. WHERE ENEMY BODIES LIE IN . HEAPS. Since then counter-attacks have restxTrj. Ed a. good d«al of. ground: , All day long f- .out airplanes had; reported more concen'iraftlons of German trpop^ .were pouring down fch£^^ j^fe'as-CajnbrAVyoadaiid other jowtep of march ,an«d our artillery had' so jnftny targets fchpy could hardly switch on to- them fast enough. The pnemy . Jesses wera fantastic i\\ £hpir horror. Meanwhile on the right again, l>e]ow the Cambreii road, our nien were- putting up 1 that heroic stand whichi I have partly described m other messages. The Suffolks,. on the Wahcourt-Tilloi .road, fought the enemy both ways, *baok to

lark, with Gcnn-nis ou oaolk side uf tliein. Parties of Mortlvuin'berla-iid Fusiliers fought until all of them were killed or wounded. There was a battle of eight hours around battalion- headquarters. The company commanders fought with rifles until they fell. Tihe Scottish Fusiliers at. l'-lenin. gave ground, slowly under onor- . ni.oxfrsi, .odds and killed! tine enemy all the way 'back. . One of our machine-gun ' batteries counted 400 German dead opposite their position around Neuville-Vitasse Mild Honlin Hill, and enemy bodies lay m heaps. GREAT DAY CAME FOR THESE CANADIANS. AVounti ArraS an<l,dowri oa the south ot the line a certain ' body, of Canadians have been having sortie most astounding adventures m all this battle, and fighting with valor and heroic audacity. They are the officers and men of a machine gun detachment organised m the early days of the war by a French-Canadiaiv officer at the expense of himself and ten friends, a<nd with waiting enthusiasm looked ' forward to the day when they would be wanted for the great service. That day came March 21, and when I saw this Franch-Oanadian officen yesterday, a. tall, dark, quiet man, speaking Avibli hidden emotion, he knew his idea was justified, and that his officers and men .had made good to the uttermost limits of gallant service. For ten days these Canadians have fought running fights with Germam Artillery, have engaged GeiTnaji cavalry and; smashed them, checked enemy columns crossing bridges and pouring; down/wards, scattered large bodies o^'men 1 surrounding ours, and m these ten days of crowded; life have destroyed many German, storm troops and 'helped to 'hold up the tide' of their advance. Their own losses are not light, for these Canadrf&ns have been fiiled with grim passion— rdetermined to die rather than yield to any odds. And when that happened they , fought and died. Eight of their cars went into action at the opening on: March 21. They were 100 kilometres antfay before night. Other detachments followed them quickly. Sometimes they fought .mounted; m these long, grey, open cays which I saw early ( m the hattle, wondering- at them, and sometimes they fought dismounted with machine guns on the ground, but al-j ways they fought through the ten days and nights, with less than 20 hours' sleep all that t/ime. Their cars near Maricoiirt gathered together ljso mejn who hod been cut off and held the enemy at bay, covering t3ie withdrawal! of some of our heavy guns and. tanks. That time they fought dismounted with Vijckers. guns m front of the- barbette to get observation. The enemy front attack iwas stopped,' but -ha -worked around their flaiiiks, and the captain of an armored car battery ordered his men behind till© wire. The enemy had to ,eojne through a. narroV gap, and was killed as lie came. These Canadians had many casualties and a captain's arm was torn away by an explosive; bullet, ajid at the last only a sergeant and two men of this party were left: One of them mounted a motor eyede jand brought back the cars and took bade the- wounded. MET BATTALION AT CROSSROADS: Twocu'V^ found the eneiny'.massing up the rfiad and their machine 'guns enJiladed the% fields of grey men. and killed them m large num'bei's. Near Lamotte they ;fottgiit he % ayijf',', bodies of German cavalry, , killed a niimber and put the rest"' to fligl'it. Tlie s v ha\ T e not been 'seen 'since. /'At Cerizy d battalion of Germans 600 strong were encountered at-arerossroad- by-one-cad'y-wlHch tbrought them, to a standstill and dispersed them; with* heavy losses. ' There swas' a fierce action' around Villers Carbonaiel, where these armored cars stopped -'a-gap'' of 200 yards undfer, a officer who was. twice surrounded iri a village opowded 1 : with Ge'rmaas and fought hife way put. At the second ■ tinie all the cvew" were killed except the driver, but the officer dismounted, took his gun and posted himself at a street corner and fired on. thY attacking Germans until they were quite, close, when lie jumped- into' the car amf drove a ( nay. One battery m action dismounted, ran out of- ammunition, hirt fought with bamibs ■ lintil these were sivent, and, then charged the enemy with lists and empty revolvers and machine gun baiTels. T Everybody is ready to help. 'these cars' 1 and their crews carry their "loads, for they Jviic-w what terrfbuj casualties they have caused the Hiins..* At times the enemy, like sheep wtthQttt < -a shepherd, walk blindly into their guns, Only to be mowjn down. . Everirn'here : they have been, the^se iCanadiaii -armored' oars helped to steady the line 'and give confidence to the infantry. They are the darlings of the troops, these 'grim ftghting fellb.ws, with jests 01* then; lips and utterly reckless of life so long as they ikill Germans. - . One of their officers is called' by the nickname of "Canada," and a"* shout of i egret went up when it wap* learned he had been 'blown off hia motor cycle by a she! 1-burst, but is : thought not* seriously wounded. " ' ■' VANCOUVER, April 4. Military circles believe that the French-Canadian officer referred to dn the above despatch is Major R&ymoriS Braitnell, who | went to -France m com*inand' of No. 1 auto machine guns section. He. resided m. Ottawa for a\iumber of yeaw, and ori , the outbreak of vApv offered .has services. He has been awarded trie D.S.Ov by the- -British and the Legion of Honor fey the Faench. 1 His mother resides m Montreal.