Current History, Vol. VIII, No. 3, June 1918: A Monthly Magazine of the New York TimesVarious
History
Current History, Vol. VIII, No. 3, June 1918: A Monthly Magazine of the New York Times
Various
World War, 1914-1918
I have already given an outline of yesterday's battle, how, after a
colossal bombardment, the German attack early in the morning from north
of Ypres to south of Voormezeele, where English battalions held the
lines, and from La Clytte past the three hills of Scherpenberg, Mont
Rouge, and Mont Noir, which French troops held to the north of Meteren,
where the English joined them; again, how the English Tommies held firm
against desperate assaults until late in the evening; how the enemy made
a great thrust against the French, driving in for a time between
Scherpenberg and Mont Noir until they were flung back by a French
counterattack.
In the night the French, who had now regained all the ground that had
been temporarily in the enemy's hands, made a general counterattack and
succeeded in advancing their line to a depth of about fifteen hundred
yards beyond the line of the three hills, which thereby was made more
secure against future assaults.
Deadly Machine-Gun Work
Meanwhile throughout the day the English battalions had been sustaining
heavy assaults, breaking the enemy against their front. The Leicesters,
especially, had fierce fighting about Voormezeele, where, as I told
yesterday, the enemy was in the centre of the village. German storm
troops advanced against our men here and along other parts of the line
with fixed bayonets, but in most places, except Voormezeele, where there
was close fighting, they were mowed down by Lewis-gun fire before they
could get near. Line after line of them came on, but lost heavily and
fell back.
Over the ground east of Dickebusch Lake some Yorkshire troops saw these
groups of field gray men advancing upon them, and the glint of their
bayonets, wet in the morning mist, and swept them with bullets from the
Lewis guns and rifles until heaps of bodies were lying out there on the
mud flats in the old Ypres salient. The most determined assaults were
concentrated upon the 25th Division, but it held firm and would not
budge, though the men had been under fearful fire in the night
bombardment, and their machine gunners kept their triggers pressed, and
bullets played upon the advancing Germans like a stream from a garden
hose.
The troops in the whole division yielded no yard of ground and they hold
that they killed as many Germans as any battalion in this battle. It was
a black day for Germany. More than ten German divisions, probably
thirteen, seem to have been engaged in this attempt to smash our lines
and encircle the three hills. They included some of the enemy's finest
divisions, so they lost quality as well as quantity in this futile
sacrifice of man-power--man-power which seems to mean nothing in flesh
and blood and heart and soul to men like Ludendorff, but is treated as a
material force like guns and ammunition and used as cannon fodder.
Brilliant French Fighters
_Referring to the French troops in this battle, Mr. Gibbs wrote:_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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