MOST HEROIC AND BLOODY.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LX, Issue 17066, 20 August 1917, Page 5

MOST HEROIC AND BLOODY.

TERRIBLE BAY"S FIGHTING.

BRITISH OVERCOME GREAT

OBSTACLES.

GERMANS SUFFER FEARFUL

LOSSES.

(Main Service.) Received August 19, 5.5 p.m

LONDON, August 18. Mr. Gibbs writes: The Battle of Langemarck on Thursday, and all the struggles in the vicinity of the wood and Inverness Copse, was one of the most heroic and bloody day's fighting during the war. The enemy put up a fierce resistance. Except where puny, underfed boys were thrust out in shell holes, as at Langemarck, behind them, prepared for ultimate counter-attacks, were some of the finest troops, including the Fifty-fourth Division, which had already been severely mauled by gun-fire and was utterly exhausted, but others like the Thirty-fourth, facing the Londoners, were fresh I and strong, having only just been placed in the battle-line. Behind the immediate supporting troops were massed reserves, held ready to hurry to any part most threatened, i or where counter-attacks might inflict the greatest damage. The gun- j power of the enemy was strong. They had prepared a great concentration of guns south-east of our right flank. | Whatever their reserves of ammuinition, they had gathered great stores for this battle. They occupied high ground on our right They held the crest of Polyon Wood, the slopes of Abraham heights and Grauenstafel Ridge. "This," says Mr. Gibbs, "is the big door he must slam in our face at all costs, because it opens out on to the plains. Our men [had no walk over. The ground was [hideous —worse than the Somme in winter. We were fighting amidst hundreds of thousands of shell holes three to ten feet deep, half full of wafer. Many were connected, forming lakes deep enough to drown men and horses. Such is iha present position arotmi Langemarck, Gleneoe's Wood, Inverness Copse, Shrewsbury Forest, and Polygon Wood. The' courage of the men attacking over such ground mu?t neods be great. With grim stubborness our soldiers advanced through these bogs. They would not be beaten, though they slipped, fell and stuck deep, whijlo fmadhine-gun bullets played: through their lines and high explosives burst along the bogland through which they were compelled to pass. It was one of the most splendid and tragn things on record. Our left gained and held all the ground as planned, but ;t was different on the right, where the enemy fought hardest and counter-at-tacked most fiercely and often. There they had concentrated the heaviest artillery. Hwre were the Irish and English county troops and London battalions, all involved in desperate fighting. When withdrawing tinder pressure, they made the enemy pay a big price in blood for portions of the old ground. The Londoners fought their way with great dash \p Glencoe's Wood and Nun7^ Wood. Parties of the Middlesex entering Polygon Wood and bringing out prisoners, but the enemy were y©ry strong at the Zonnebeke position. Coun- ! ter-attacks developed to the southward and northward, and the Londoners were shut in by terrible gun fire. Many of their gronps in exposed positions fought separate battles against odds, trsving to hold rearguards positions .while their comrades retreated in good order. This they did until they died or remnants reluctantly surrendered.