OCR Text |
Show STORY FROM THE BATTLE FRONT How Remarkable Transfer of British Troops Was Made in the Night. MEN ON DUTY 24 HOURS Evacuation of Trenches and Replacing English With French Troops Under Nose of Germans. London, Nov. S, 11:10 a. m. Another An-other eye witness account from the battle front in France and Belgium, written by Cole D. Swinton of the In telligence department of the British general staff, was given out today The narrative gives an account of a remarkable transler, during the course of a great battle, of British troops from the Aisne river to northeastern north-eastern Fr.ince, where the battle of the Yser is now progressing. This transfer," says the account, "can best be compared with the action ac-tion of the Japanese during the battle bat-tle of Mukden, when General Oku withdrew a portion of his force from his front moved it northwards behind the line and threw it into the tight again near the extreme left of the Japanese armies. ' What was implied in the actual withdrawal from contact with the enemy along the Aisne will be appreciated ap-preciated when the conditions under which we were then situated are recalled, re-called, ln places the two lines were not 100 yards apart and for us no movement was possible during the daylight "The men in the firing line were on duty for 24 hours at a time and brought rations and water with them when they came on duty for none could be sent up to them during the day because of the terrific firing. Even the wounded could not be r moved until dark. A preliminary re-tiienient re-tiienient of the units, was therefore, carried out generally under cover of dai kness. "That the Germans only once cpencd fire upon us was due to the care with which the operation was conducted, and also probably to tho fact that the enemy was so accustomed accus-tomed to the recurrence of sounds made by the reliefs of men in the tiring line and by the movement of supply trains that they were misled as to what actually was taking place. ' What the operation amounted to on our part was the evacuation of the trenches under carefully made arrangements ar-rangements with the French who had to take our place in the trenches, tin retirement to the river below, the crossing of the river over noisy piank roadways which were mostly commanded com-manded by the enemy's guns, and the climb up to the top of the plateau on the south side "In spite of the various difficulties, the whole strategic operation was carried out without loss and practically practical-ly without hitch." (Continued on Page Five). STORY FROM THE BATTLE FRONT (Continued from Pago 1) "As regards the changed nature of the fighting in which wo recently bat been engaged it already had been pointed out that the operations had up till then been of a preparatory prepara-tory nature and that the Germans were obviously seeking to delay us by , i ed troops while their nea lei forces were being got ready and brought up. Raising a New Army. "It whs known ihat they were rals-li rals-li a new anh3 and that part of It would probably be sent to the western west-ern theatre, either to cover the troops laying siege to Antwerp in case thai place should hold out or lo act in eon-junction eon-junction with the besieging force In a violent offensive movement towards the coast. "After the fall of Antwerp and the release of the besieging troops there vvus a gradual lactase In the Strength of their opposition. The re-slctance re-slctance of the detachments grew more and more determined as more Infantry ul.ii huh came up into the front line until Tuesday, October L'O. when the arrival opposite na of a large portion of new formations and ' QBiderable number of heavy guns enabled the ehemy to assume the of fensive practically against the whole of our line at the same time that they attacked the Belgians between us and the coast." 'The operations then assumed fresh complexion. On October 21, the new German formations again nressed all along our line. Soutli of the Ls. an attack on our lines was repulsed with loss to the assailants We were driven from some ground close by to the north, but regained it bj a counter attack "Still further to the north the Germans Ger-mans gained and retained some points and their casualties to the southwest of Axmentleres were estimated at more than 0000. "On the north of the Lys, in our center, a fiercely contested action look place near LaQhelr, which 11 lage was captured in the morning by the enemy and then retaken by us. The German casualties were extremely extreme-ly heavy. One battalion of their 104th regiment was practically wiped out. some 4mi dead being picked up In our lines alone. "By our counter attack we took 130 prisoners and released some forty of our men who had been captured Our I men were very well treated by their captors On our left we advanced again Germany's 26tb corps near Paa- schendaele and were met by a determined deter-mined counter offensive which was driven back with great losses. At night the Germans renewed their efforts ef-forts unsuccessfully s they came up in a solid line two deep they shouted, 'Don't fire, we are the Coldstream Cold-stream guards ' "Our men, however, are getting used to tricks of this kind and the only-result only-result was that they allowed the en-em;, en-em;, s infantry to approach quite close before they swept them down "Apart from the 400 dead found ne;n our lines in the center, our patrols pa-trols afterward discovered Bome 300 dead in front of our leTt, killed by our artillery. "Thursday, the 22nd. saw a renewal of the pressure against us We succeeded, suc-ceeded, however, in holding our ground in nearly every quarter South of the Lys the enemy attacked from LaBassee and gained at Violaninos and at anotheer point, but their efforts ef-forts against a third village were repulsed re-pulsed by artillery fire alone. 'The Germans advanced In the evening eve-ning against our e nter and our left i ml were again hurled back, though thej gained some of our trenches In LUi latter quarter By this tine' the ! ai my had succeeded In bringing up ral heavy howitzers and our casualties cas-ualties were considerable. "On the 23rd, all action south of the I ys was confined to artillery, several sev-eral of the hostile batteries being silenced. si-lenced. In the center their Infantry again endeavored to force their way forward and were repulsed only after determined fighting. "On our left it was a bad day for the Germans We drove them from some of the trenches out of which they had turned us on the previous evening and captured 160 prisoners and released some of our men whom they had taken. Our guns did great execution The afterwards made five desperate assaults on our trenches. Each assault was easily beaten back, our troops waiting until the OUi my came within very close range b tore the opened fire, causing ter rible havoc In the solid masses. Luring the fighting in this quarter on the night or the I'L'd, the German leseee again were extremely heavy We made more than 600 prisoners and picked up 1500 dead. "Much of the slaughter was due to our magazine fire whilst our field guns and howitzers did their share As the enemy fell back they were sub-jected sub-jected to a shower of Bhrapnel; when they sought shelter In villages or buildings, they were shattered and en. en out by highly explosive shells uno then again caught by shrapnel, as they came into the open " |