Bravery and Butchery

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXX, Issue 10, 29 August 1914, Page 3

Bravery and Butchery

FIGHTING FOR TWO DAYS. DETAILS CONCERNING MONS AND CHARLEROI. [Unimed Peeks Association. ] London, August 28. Though the French troops had taken up their positions on Thursday, the .British only arrived in the nick of time to stem the GcnAns’ onrush. They prepared their lines with extraordinary rapidity. The infantry a«d artillery occupied points of vantage on the low hills overlooking the valley. The Britishers were strengthening their positions when they were attacked on Sunday morning. Simultaneously other Britishers ordered out from Mous came under fire. They had no trenches or cover of any kind, and just had to drop down and lie still till nightfall, when they did their best to make trenches. But directly the British sought to entrench, the German shells began to burst. The regiments tried new positions, with the same result, and they fought all the afternoon for liberty to make trenches. For a time the German artillery tried to explode the gasometer at Mous. Every time they missed the gasometer the Tommies cheered,though they waited anxiously enough for the next shot.

The big siege guns of the Royal Garrison Artillery made excellent practice. One-half of the battery was exposed in a particularly galling position. Several German batteries made a cqmbined attack, and silenced the British guns one by one, until but a single gunner remained, and he would have gone on juntil he dropped, but his officer called him away. (A field battery in the British Army consists of 5 officers and 194 other ranks, with six guns). The English artillery was magnificent, but there was not enough of it in comparison with the enemy’s. The shells of the Allies burst without falling, but the Germans, who found the range smartly, failed to make the shells burst, while they frequently fell short. The Gormans bombarded the entrenched Berkshire Regiment for 2b hours. Very few casualties were reported. »: A German aeroplane came too close to the gunners, who brought it down when 2000 ft up.

Three miles north of the canal were two clumps of forest, about five miles in depth. The Germans advanced from Charleroi, through woOdfjd country to the nortlj-vvpafc of Moms: From their higher groUj,io'.tho British could follow the whole of'the'Germans’. movements, and when the/ emerged juto the plain the artillery, opened a. tterestating. live, cchoed'>by;rifle fire from tire trenches when tliby caitte' within' range,..Thousands of Germans Tell.

The Germans had made no progVoss, by nightfall on Sunday, but their dead, and wounded were scattered over the hills between the canal and the forest. The British loss was small. The play of the German searchlights throughout the night was uncanny, accompanied by occasional artillery fire.

Fighting was resumed with violence at daybreak, as the Germans had been, heavily reinforced.

During the morning scouting'parties of German Eussars and-Uhlans tried to reach the canal, hut most of them were killed by artillery fire; ■ A ! few were taken prisdfiers'.'' Then the advance enfinasse ■befeari, the Germans ad. vancingdour or five'deep, and although whole,ranks were mown down the main body managed to reach the north bank' of the canal, and began building bridges. The battle at this point was mere butchery. Ten times the Gormans throw pontoons over the water. Ten times the British artillery destroyed them.

Desperate fighting took place at a colliery village on the west, of which the British held a section for some hours. The Northumberland Fusiliers took part in this. Street fighting included a bayonet charge by the South Lancashires. Piles of German bodies, mown down by machine-guns, blocked the streets in some places. Meanwhile, the sheer weight of their massed batteries carried the Germans forward. Their infantry also advanced in close order. They offered a magnificent mark, and their losses were greater than the Allies, but* so were their numbers; and they came again and again.

By two o’clock on Monday the British had begun to fall hack. The Middlesex Regiment suffered badly, but many of the British infantry were not within range of the Germans. They had been for 22 hours in the trenches, and wore very hungry.