STRUGGLE AT CAMBRAI.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15387, 19 December 1917, Page 5

STRUGGLE AT CAMBRAI.

GROUND BLACK WITH CORPSES. Mr Perry Robinson, telegraphing on Sunday, says: lire enemy’s most supreme and dramatic effort was in the open country belw/een Bourlon Wood and Moeuvres. No fewer than five divisions, about 50,000 men, were concenti*ated on a front of 5000 yards. It was like fighting successive swarms of bees. Officers ' say that the ground was simply black with Germans. Our men could not miss them, and the ground was still black with corpses at the end of the dreadful day. The enemy made a little dent in our position, meaning nothing. Barely have a few yards been won at such terrible cost, for exceeding the day’s total of British casualties and prisoners. Nine attacks at Les Rues Yertes and Masnieres were beaten back. Some say it was the greatest slaughter of Germans during the war. The mere work of killing them left the victors worn out Ht night. Mr Phillip Gibb says that the Germans are fighting proudly and savagely, and are drenched in hate. Two officers who were surrounded refused to /swsxender to the accursed Engilsh. One ■toww out his brains, the other stabbed himself with a bayonet. Illusory pro- > raises of oeace are constantly used to Stimulate the men on the eve of battle. Jf M. Tndesq, correspondent of Le Journal. states that the Germans threw 20 divisions into the Cambrai fight. They employed all their ingenuity, destructive genius, desperation, and ferocity.. They collected reserves from everywhere, even recent arrivals from Russia, hurling men in like a battering-ram. Human avalanches and again, preceded by

a deluge of shells, dashed against the British, yelling as though mad drunk from alcohol. The officers had a frenzied desire -to avenge their defeat. It was the most bitter fighting. Regiments opposed regiments as confused bluro The sang froid and calm heroism of the Tommies triumphed everywhere. The Germane were decimated, and battalions were sacrificed in vain. It was the roughest lesson since the Somme. The military correspondent of , the Westminster Gazette regards the repulse as one of the most momentous episodes of the Western campaign. We have proved that Germany’s most formidable defensive weapon, namely, counter-at-tack, cannot be depended on to check us. Undoubtedly Hindenburg employed what he considered sufficient forces, for it is contrary to German practice to risk failure in crucial operation by stinting weight., Nevertheless the blow 'did not succeed. Probably the effort will be persisted in, for the enemy does not dare to sit down under a demonstration that his power of counter-attack is not equal to his demands.