IN A TRAP

Waikato Times, Volume 87, Issue 13271, 29 August 1916, Page 5

IN A TRAP

THIEPVAL GARRISON DOOMED. REMARKABLE BRITISH ADVANCE (Australian and N.Z. Cable Assn.) LONDON, August 28. Mr Philip Gibbs, writing in the Daily Chronicle, says: "The doom of Thiepval is near at hand. Jn a series of sharp attacks and short rushes we have forced a way across the tangled web of trenches and redoubts. The troops have bitten off the nose of the Liepzig salient and have taken Hindenburg trench, which is almost the last defensive work barring the way to the southern entrance, to the village and the fortress. We have advanced east and west, and thrown a lassoo around the stronghold on the hill, whence the garrison has only one way of escape, where our guns will get them. They are in a death trap. Nothing of the village is left but heaps of rubbish. Wave after wave of Britishers swarmed up the ridge during Thursday's remarkable advance, which not even the fiercest German barrage checked. Onward and upward it swept in scattered parties, which drove straight into the infernal fires. All behind and along the front shells were bursting, raising enormous fantastic clouds. "When the wind drifted the smoke away some of our men wove seen on the highest ground—single figures in black against, the sky. They jumped the German trenches, and, after a terrific liomb fight, there suddenly emerged a crowd of figures, loaping and running. They were Germans trying to reach our trendies to surrender and get some cover from their own shell-fire. "The assaulters meanwhile held the conquered ground, tightening the iron net around Thiepval.''

(Australian and N.Z. Cable Assn.) Received August 28, 7 p.m. LONDON, August 28.

Writing to the London Daily Chronicle, Mr Philip Gibbs says: "The Wilt shires and the Worcester s deserve the honour Sir Douglas Haig has given them. They advanced splendidly over a great stretch of 'no man's land,' and, after a great assault, sustained a long and fierce bombardment followed by a strong attack by Prussian Guards. This was probably the Germans' great effort to check our advance on the ridge from Thiepval to High Wood, and to rescue Thiepval from its impending fate. Our mastery of the air places the German gunners at a great disadvantage. Our guns are able to cause the heaviest casualties. The morale of the Germans in the shell craters and ruins is- badly shaken. The coming operations, involving the fate of Thiepval, will be the greatest artillery duel seen on the British front. ' :''