AFTER THE VICTORY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 145863, 23 June 1917, Page 3

AFTER THE VICTORY.

SCENES ON THE BATTLEFIELD. WORSE THAN THE SOMME. LONDON, Juno 9. Mr. Pirrie Robinson (Times correspondent) says: — “A victory completer than ours yesterday would bo impossible. This morning there was a small attack by the Australians for the purpose of rounding off the gains. Only a bit of ground with certain trenches required to ho taken. The operation was as successful as everything else, and finished at half-past 9 o’clock. “Later the enemy made a show of attacking in force. The artillery got him while massing for the attack, which did not develop. Considering the smallness of losses, the swiftness of victory, and the number of prisoners, there was absolutely no flow to be found in yesterday’s operations, which resulted in the cleanest and most unequivocal triumph ever won by British arms. The Germans may pretend that another attempted break-through was foiled. But wo correspondents knew in advance what was proposed, and I pledge my word that every jot was achieved. BATTERED GERMAN LINE. “Yesterday 1 watched the bombardment of Messines Ridge. To-day, I, a civilian, wandered about it, strolling peaceably and unmolested. The ground between the tree stumps was brown and ploughed up and mixed with remnants. The battle area is, perhaps, a more dreadful place than either the Somme or Arras. Our dead are curiously few. The Germans _ are more numerous, though the majority were entombed in their trenches and dug-outs. The German line is clean cut on one side with green grass, on the other a chaos and wilderness of interlocking shell-holes in which the wire is heaped in twisted knots. So it is over the whole network of trenches—a desolation complete as Vimy and Pozieres. “I saw many craters. The biggest was 70ft. deep and 100 yards across. “Apart from the loss of life, there is no doubt that the terror and demoralisation caused by the mines was enormous. “The Ulstermen are in a happy position. Hardly anyone has a story tb tell. Their casualties were slight, but they took over a thousand prisoners. One battalion had 60 casualties (three killed) and took 100 prisoners. The Ulstermen did their work cleanly and beautifully. The South Irish were just as good, and officers of both tell me that it was impossible to hold the men.”