Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1915-09-11
NINE CRATER At
HODGE TAKEN BY
BRITISH TROOPS
Terrific Fire of ShrapneI and
H.gn Explosive Shells Drives
Germans Into DugOUtS Be
fore Infantry Attack
,..ocio,ed Press correspondence

HuOge Is the name OF WHAT
,rrq a village in region as nat
billiard table II is IN the pres
sisrt where. il is generally asreed'
- blood has been spilled than over
similar length Of line on lhe
Tern 'front.' with the exception oI
S,5abpz where the French maue
Esir first attack i'm May and June.
Tho blowing up of mine nhder
tbe German trench recently ih"ue
about The hottest pace i'm the
WIRES salient. II was one OF lne lara
mines the British have exploded
and il made hole in the ear'h anout
t fest deep and seventy feet
,cross The British charsed and TOOK
nossession Of the position.
In reply to the mine the Germans
,.anabt up their flame jector ap-
osrstls which they had tried on the
rra,nh before but now used on the
prItisb for the first time. Around
re- edpe of the mine-crater the Eng
Wshmen ana the Germans We're, at one
Mace only five feet apart The era
ter was so big and it had so distlg-
nre1 the landscape that it was diff
emil ro consolidate the position, as
me- official bulletins say, particularly
when showers of bombs from either
sid4 punished any enterprise on the
mart Of the other.
Fire Drives British Back.
on ton of a bombardment of all
The neghboring part of the British
line where the trenches We're farther
apari and of Commandment with NOR
tars and bombs whore they were close
together the Germans suddenly
SPRAYED the British front with fire
over section where their infantry
attacked. The British had to give up
their crater ana HODGE too, ana some
500 Yards of trenches. When they
SET out to recover the lost ground at
frst they found the Germans had the
line bristing with machine guns, so
they reclaimed only one end Of what
they had lost.
The rule in the Ypres salient seems
to be never TO lie down tamely alter
any setback. Both sides fight to re
cover q loss no matter what the cost.
Saueuinary battles are waged Tor few
acres of ground. All one day the
British kept an almost continuous
roar of shells over other parts of the
salient They made the German
trenches boil with dust under clouds
of shrapnel smoke. The German guns
replied. They threw some more sew
enteen-inch shells into the ruins OF
Ypree and into other points which
they had not considered worthy Of
seventeen-inch metal before. The
thunders of this artillery duel could
be heard thirty to forty miles to the
rear It made a sound like the roll
Of drum with almost no interval be
tween the shots. Nothing heavier had
been heard since Souchez
About o'clock the next morning
guns which had been silent before
came into action. They were an di-
rected on the German trenches at
Hooge sending tons Of high eNplo-
sves and storms of shrapnel. Then at
AIS by the watches of gunners and
intantrymen the guns stopped. The
next minute a British major at the
head of battalion line leaped over
the parapet AS he said, he found
nobody at home The Germans
We're in their dugouts according to
the custom on such occasions, taking
shelter from the tornado of shell fire
which makes even a lookout hardly
possible Turning the corner Of a
traverse, the major fairly bumped into
German who had come out Of his
dugout to see why the Smelling mad
stopped
First German Captured.
You're mine" said the major, put
ting his revolver muZzle to the Ger
mans breast "He promptly agreed
that he was" as the major expressed
It.
The happiness of the officers anC
men as they told the story Of tina
light 10 the correspondent turned on
gratitude to their artillery support
IL shows what artillery can do saiC
the colonel "and what the infantry
can do when the guns give them tina
KIND of aid Their work was perfect
straight on there in front of the men'
noses with no shells bursting shor
ana then they all stopped like an or
eheStra at the end of a piece. ny
only trouble with the men was to holC
lnem back from the front line /
mere is anything that puts spirit int
me men it is that kind of support
we got four good machine guns ant
uon know how many were destroy
ca Germany is one big battery 5h
uoes il with artillery and machine
guns Guns against her guns and W.
snail be all right Yes, we had a fin
show"
he kept on speaking OF the gun
ana SO did the other Officers and mel
Nlh he depth of feeling expressly
oi realization that the guns meant IF
"la death and success and failure 70
mem Sinsularly enough the Brits
loss IN taking the trench was less thai
losing II. They got about 100
saIos with the first rush. Mostly the
iile1 the Germans coming from thei
uugouts and it was hand-to-han
"hrn the Germans did not yield.
Germans Buried Alive.
as soon as they had yielded the
were started back toward the BIRTHS
rear for in the maze Of traverse
Enere rifles aind bombs are Yin
auoul loose prisonera may soon rene
tne tray. The next DAY a faint run
~ Ike that Of a human voice cam
.toln pile of earth and it was foun
.uat one Of the high explosives ha
e!osed the door of a dugout tn
'rupants were rescued alive.
Nhen an officer and some me
tahe 70 the edge of the mine-crate
10y round nearly 100 Germans in n
luton OF il, where they had take
pse.t from the bombardment TT
~ 'Ush looked down at the German
NJ tne Germans looked up al ii
I'ish As one Of the men said n
PRISE was mutual but the German
&c little the more surprised Of II
"o The British had bombs in The
hands. All they had to do was
sahd back and toss the bombs I'M
'he crater.
Chucking bombs into a dugor
when the occupants viii net surren,
NJ