A GRAPHIC STORY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11505, 29 September 1915, Page 6

A GRAPHIC STORY.

PRELUDE TO THE SHOVE. AWE-INSPIRING SCENE ON BRITISH FRONT. HOW THE GUNsTIASTED A PATH LINES BATTERED DAY AND NIGHT By TeleEraph.—Prcss Association.---Copyright •. (Received September L'o. 1 p.m.) j LONDON, September 28. | Tho " Westminster Gazette's : ' correspondent in northern France, writing, on September 23, pays: —■ "This is tho third day of the continuous British bombardment. The German fire is astonishingly l'ght, suggesting that they are short of guns and ammunition on this front. Looking towards the German lines there is no sign of life; even the trench periscopes are untwisted. The German infantry is king low, packed in tho deepest dugouts. Tho ground immediately below the surface consists of cha'k, and tho trenches on both sides are clearly defined, tho wavy lines of the parapets glaring white in the sunshine. Tho most prominent features of the country are pithead erections, towering chimneys, and hugo black slag heaps. Most of tho mine chimneys have been shelled down becauso they were used for ar(tillery observation stations, but the tall, winding gear erections and the metal lattice work, resisted the shells. "Tho spectacle on the British front was wonderful and awe-inspiring. Shells from the heaviest artillery, resembling geysers spouting tlame, sruoKe and dust, were playing upon the slag heaps at Lens, Lyddite Irom the howitzers plunged into the firing and communication trenches, blowing down parapets. Shrapnel pelted savagdy the masses of barbed entanglements j nrotecting the German lines. Ihe amount of wire used is stupendous Great thickets and hedges run in front of every trench. The Germans are continually adding reinforcements of rusty wire with fresh tangles, making blue-tinted heaps, through which only shrapnel can blast a path. " It was necessary for the artillery to cut manv more miles of entanglements than the actual attack requiroa, otherwise the Germans would realise tho soot selected for the assault. Ihe Britis'h bombardment blotted out whole stretches of the German line in a slow moving curtain of smone, through wh'ch'we could see the orange flame o bursting shells- Every, heavy .shell threw up an enormous co.uum of dust, which drifted slowly down the wmd along the German front. "The bellowing ana' the thunder ot the guns, the shrieks and screams ot the shells and the crashes and growls Of tho high explosives were unceasing all day long. Even the darkness was broken by the continual gun-flashes telling of the activity of guns throughout the battle line. The British have heard of the hammering the Russians havo undergone, of the apparent lockfast at Galiipoli, and of the painhilly slow progress of Italy. >ow they feel that the fulcrum of the lever is back lon the west front. Tho Germans have 1 ieered at Lord Kitchener's armies, but these feel now that they have a real good chance of showing their mettle alongside the remnants ot bir John French's ' contemptible little army !