ENEMY CAUGHT MAPPING.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 145999, 4 December 1917, Page 7

ENEMY CAUGHT MAPPING.

GREAT SECRET OF WAR. SUPERIORITY IN EVERY ARM. LONDON, Nov. 22. Describing the attack on the Hindenburg line on'Tuesclay morning, Mr. Philip Gibbs says: —The enemy had the surprise of his life when our troops assaulted him at dawn. without a preliminary shot. The belt o f his Indeous-ly-strong wire was still intact, but the 'tanks smashed the wire, enabling our men quickly to attack the Germans in their own trenches. . I regard this attack as the most sensational and dramatic episode of this year’s war. It was brilliantly imagined, and the bestkept secret of the war. Although the troops facing u s showed signs of being uneasy and suspicious, the High Command never dreamt of such a Wow. The enemy could not guess this mighty unorthodox plan. ~ The Germans had withdrawn many guns from this quiet sector, but until the wire had been cut had every right to believe themselves safe. Thev were not aware of the great number of tanks which were nightly crawling along the mads, and hiding daily m copses heron d Peronno and Bapaume. The officers directing the operations had an anxious time, as it was a most audacious venture, depending entirely upon surprise. Past attacks against uncut wire have alwavs meant death to the infantry. Hie destruction of wire hnd previously been the artillery’s work. We caught the eneinv on the hop. The first' they knew of tho attack was when the tanks were advancing and smashing the wire, crawling over the trenches and nosing forward with gun-fire and machine-guns Waving from their sides. The Germans were aghast and dazed. Many hid in dug-outs and tunnels, or surrendered. Only the bravest ned the machine-guns and snipers’ posts. The tremendous bombardment from our lines added to their terrors. Our platoons swarmed behind the tanks, trudging through thistles, cheering and shouting. The German artillery feeblv answered onr shells, their gun positions being smothered by the fire of all our batteries. The Germans were caught I'ke rats in a. tra-n. It was their black day. Onr men felt the thrill of this dramatic adventure, so different from previous attacks accord nig to stale formulae, and preceded hv ferocious shell fire.

It seemed queer to be once again on tbe southern roads, crossing the Somme battlefield 1 and tho great tract of country beyond where the retreatmp Germans blew up the villages, and approaching a new battlefield. It was strange, after the shell-holes of Passchendaele, to notice the absence of mud craters. Brown earth showed the assembly trenches dug in tho night for the attackers’ field and heavy puns. The firing was intense, and tho bombardment was in full view of the astonished enemy. The gun flashes were visible miles along our front, through the white morning mists. Haying loft Tores neiehhonrhood, where it appeared we had most of onr guns, it was astounding to sec so many of our batteries here. Hardly a shell came over. We saw only about a. dozen hurst near our batteries. Shrapnel hurst over our line in the advance, jmt with nothing like tho intensitv in tho battles for Passohendaele. The enemy clearlv was weak in artillery. A battalion of Royal Fusiliers gained their objectives without a casualtv. Several county battalions suffered light losses, mostly from ma-chine-gun bullets. Tho casualties were few as battles go now. Only 200 walking wounded had reached the southernmost dressing station by 11 in the morning. The prisoners here were Brunswick men, mnstlv old. belonging to the 20th I/andwchr Division. Some of our ambulances drove within a few hundred yards of the battle to rescue the fallen.

One of the wonders of the day was the work of our airmen. Some were flying so low that they seemed to make a breeze over my helmet. The enemy was stone dead in the air, and thus was caught napping both in earth and sky.