THE PUSH.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 7914, 4 August 1917, Page 3

THE PUSH.

GRAPHIC STORY BY PHILIP .GIBBS. ENEMY TERRIFIED. Australian & N.Z. Cable Association. LONDON, August 2. Mr Gibbs, writing from the front, says that a rainstorm veils the battlefield in a dense mist. The wretched German infantry are lying in open woods in a frightful condition, wet to the skin and cut off by our barrages. The sufferings of the Germans huddled in these exposed places is as hideous as anything in human agony. They are slashed into bits by storms of shell, and urged forward to counterattacks knowing that death is inevitable. The prisoners in our hands have the look of men who have passed through hell. J . , , , Drenched with wet and with boots full of water, with sunken eyes and ashen-grey faces, they look like sick and hunted animals. . Many are groaning loudly and piteously with cramps in the stomachs caused by long exposure and hunger. Others wept bitterly, saying“ We hate the war. Do not hide our sufferings from our people at home.” The army is filled with gloomy forebodings, and living in terror of our tremendous gunfire. About one-fourth of the prisoners arc anaemic lads, terrorised and incapable of fight. Some of our own men are stunned by the terrific blast of gunfire. Prisoners are amazed to find our field guns wheel to wheel. They describe rows of German dead, including a brigade staff clasping gas masks caught suddenly by the blackest terror of modern warfare.