Current History: A Monthly Magazine of the New York Times, May 1918: Vol. VIII, Part I, No. 2Various
History
Current History: A Monthly Magazine of the New York Times, May 1918: Vol. VIII, Part I, No. 2
Various
World War, 1914-1918
Their main thrust was toward Roeux, that frightful little village, with
its chemical works, which I used to write about so much in April and May
last. Once again yesterday it became a shambles. The British had machine
guns well placed with a wide field of fire, and as the Germans came down
the slopes they were swept with streams of bullets, which cut swaths in
their formations, but once again, as on March 21, the enemy was reckless
of life, theirs as well as the British, and always his tide of men
flowed forward, passing over dead and wounded, and creeping forward like
flowing water. The British field guns raked them while the heavies
pulled further back to avoid being blown up or captured.
FIGHT FOR ORANGE HILL
On and about Orange Hill and Telegraph Hill British battalions who know
this ground of old fought tenaciously under murderous machine-gun fire,
the enemy's screen of infantry covering machine-gun batteries which were
rushed forward very quickly and took up positions in shell holes and
behind bits of broken wall and any kind of cover, in ditches and sunken
roads.
A footing gained by the enemy on part of Orange Hill and Infantry Hill
rendered it necessary to fall back yesterday toward the old German
support lines before that battle in April, 1917. The British fought like
tigers, and would not retire until the pressure on them made it
impossible to resist the continual thrust of new attacks by fresh
troops. There were heroic actions by small groups of men struggling to
hold up the front line, and some of them stayed so long after the enemy
had broken beyond them that they were cut off.
Frightful fighting was happening not far from Neuville, Vitasse, and
Mercatel and in this neighborhood the British held out with wonderful
determination until exhausted by battle and until only a poor remnant of
men had strength to stand against these massed attacks.
By the end of the day the enemy's assaults weakened, and then died out
because his losses were enormous and the spirit of his attack was broken
by such stubborn resistance.
ENEMY FAILS AT ARRAS
_Sunday, March 31._--We now have knowledge that the attack on Arras was
prepared on a scale of enormous strength by divisions arranged in depth,
preceded by a bombardment as great as that which fell upon any part of
the British line on the morning of March 21, and that the enemy had
determined to capture not only Arras itself but Vimy Ridge.
It was the heroic resistance of the British troops that defeated this
furious onslaught and destroyed by enormous losses to the German troops
this dark scheme of their high command. Seven German divisions were in
position north of the Scarpe and twelve south, in an arc around the
defenses of Arras.
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