VERDUN RIVALLED.

Colonist, Volume LVII, Issue 14147, 26 July 1916, Page 5

VERDUN RIVALLED.

GLORIOUS SCOTTISH STAND AT

DELVILLE WOOD,

("The Times.")

(Received July 25, 8.15 p.m.) London, July '24 •''Tlio Timcs's" correspondent at headquarters, writing on the 21st, says that already the operations on f the Somme rival those at Verdun. There never was a struggle of fiercer intensity. and it promises to increase. * Describing the recent German conn-tor-attacks at Delville Wood, ho s''>ys: Wo already know how the .German:fear the Highlanders, and they have better reason now than ever. There has been nothing finer in any war thai

the way the Scotsmen, after four clays' unimaginable strain, flung back enormously* preponderating numbers. In the last desperate counter-attack with a gallant; handful of South Africans they rose from their hastily made line and beat back nine or ten battalions of fresh troops. ' .

Lbngueval formsvpart of Delville Wood. The Germans are immensely strong, haA'ing machine guns and two field guns, which fired at 150 yards point-blank range. Our thin line was tremendously shelled with every kind of weapon for eight hours. It was worse than anything known before. The South Africans, who had passed through the Scottish two days previously to clear Delville Wood ; wore driven hack in small bunds -throughout' the day. They.• dropped into the trench beside the Scots and waited while hell raged. At last the enemy infantry appeared through the wood on all sides in wave after wave. Before the overwhelming numbers our men foil - back to the reserve trench. Here, gathering the fragments and scraps of 'battalions, companies, and platoons, the Scotsmen and South Africans rallied. A handful counter-attacked and drove hack the enemy's masses through Delville Wood. Even shell-shocked wounded, after four sleepless days and nights, took a heroic resolution and somehow went forward with their com-