"MOST FRIGHTFUL FIGHT EVER SEEN."

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LX, Issue 16960, 11 April 1917, Page 5

"MOST FRIGHTFUL FIGHT EVER SEEN."

LONDON, April 9. Mr Philip Gibfas, - continuing, says:— ' <I have seen fury. But this vas the beginning of the most tragic and frightful sight men have ever seen. With infernal and indescribable,splendour the preliminary bombardment for several days reached its height yesterday. In arras it was hell itself. The enemy was flinging nugh explosives into the city. Clouds of shrapnel were bursting overhead, and there were scattered shells exploding all round the country. Our bombardment swept, Vimy from rodo-e to ridge. Above Arras to the Cambrli road was one continuous roar of death. Every battery was firing steadily There was tragic irony in the remembrance that the eve of the new conflict Sujnday. Church bells .behind the battlefield wer Q ringing out the message of the risen Christ. But there was no truce of God. As I went up the road towards the front trenches I saw fighting men stand in a hollow square with bowed heads while the chaplain was conducting Easter service. Peasants, wnthin shelling distance, were ploughing the fields. Elsewhere the only preparation for the advance was the concentration of infantry. It was necessary to attack the great natural fortresses facing Arras, which were defended by the massed German guns.

' Our supply columns moved up in an endless tide. At the roadsides men could be seen, with .stacked rifles, writing letters home. Before dawn they were in the midst of the battle."