BRAVE TERRITORIALS

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LXX, Issue 146018, 22 July 1916, Page 5

BRAVE TERRITORIALS

THE LONDON "DBE HARDS."

(Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) (Received Saturday, at 8.50 a.m.) LONDON, Friday.

Mr Philip Gibbs, the war correspondent, states that in the offensive the Territorials proved great soldiers both in attack and resistance.

The Queen 'a Westminsters, the Queen Victoria Kifles, the London Klile Brigade, the Bankers, and London Scottish advancing at Gommeeourt reached the German lines and captured a network of trenches with amazing speed.

The enemy then put a barrage of high explosives, which no living thing could pass. The Londoners were caught in a death trap, and their escape cut off. The gunfire smashed our o.onnuuuk'ation trenches and prevented supports' reaching the men in the captured salient. Their comrades desperately attempted to send ammunition. One party of sixty, -with hand grenades, set out, but only three returned.

The enemy organised a series of counter attacks. Some enemy parties approached the Londoners from a northern position, whence the enemy enfiladed the London Scottish on the right, holding the redoubt building and barricades'.

Ammunition grew scarce and the bombs were almost exhausted. The Londoners gathered German bombs, but the position became uglier. The men, however, never lost heart.

An officer rallied six good men ami ordered the others to retreat with tho wounded and take their chance across No Man's Land while he put up a last light. He stuck to the. barricade until all but two were killed. He was , the last to leave.

Gradually tho Londoners withdrew under a great shell fire.

Many of tho wounded remained on the iieid, suffering great agony for days. One officer who was wounded in the leg crawled about the iield for 12 days before being rescued.