The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-05-24
Official Eyewitness Tells of Activities Along Allied Fighting Line During the Past Week
ALLIES EXPAND
 AND CONSOLIDATE
 GROUND GAINED
British Rush Forward at Two Points and Close in on Surrounded Teutons. Both Lose Heavily

B0noou. Way S3.-toilo n. m.t-Ipc British "eyc,vitness" at army head quarters In France explains in m ac- count dated Mny 21 that the British notion the first part of the week con sisted almost entirely In consolidating and expanding ground gained in last Sundays attack north of La Bassec. In this they were successful.
 In the attack on May F, he says. the Germans. who had held on to ground south of Richebourg La You and rorth of Festurbert, pressed on three sides and subjected to crossfire and continuous bonn barding. reached the limit of their en- durance and more than 800 surrendered The British, having thus joined hands pressed the Germans still farther to the eastward, forcing them out of one post after the other Entire groups have sur rendered.
 The British official describes the scene mentioned in the official report at the time of German artillery fire being direct , GU oh ftfltll OWH iDtn WHO were DItFlnR to surrender near Ferme cour De La sBoue.
 Desperate Fighting Desperate fighting" says the narra- tive, was going on in front of this farm. when the remains of a battalion of Sax ons was thrown into the fight. Having decided to surrender en bloc they ad- vanced toward our line. Not knowing what movement this mass of men inn piled our infantry poured hail of bull let's into them, whereupon the survivors. some hundreds strong. threw up their i hands. One of their number waved a white rag tied to stick.
 "The matter was taken out of their hands. for as soon as the Prussian infan- try on the north of this point realized what their Saxon comrades were trying to do, they opened a rapid fire from the nank. enilading the mass.
 '.It appears also that the news of what was happening must have been teephoned to the Germans. which also probably was Prussian, since it's guns suddenly opened | on the Saxon infantry and under this | combine fire most of the latter were soon accounted for.
 | Among the many scenes of the wal l there probably has been no more strange spectacle than the masses of gray coated | soldiers. standing out in the open with | hands raised and amidst dead and dying being butchered by their own comrades before the eyes of British infantry.
 Many Saxons Killed | 'sThe fact that the victims of this slaughter were Saxons was source Of regret to us since Saxons always have proved more chivarous and less brutal than either Prussians or Bavarians. While we were pressing forward be tween our two original points of pene tration our troops on the right were mak- ing good progress.
 "The Germans soon were cleared out | of their quarter up to short distance south of Festubert, where they made a strong resistance and checked our fur ther lateral progress.
 "The fighting here was made up of a
 series of isolated, desperate, hand-to hand combats with the bayonet and hand gren- ade and the German losses were heavy
 In the narrow trenches there often was no room to escape and the only alterna- Il lives were death or surrender.
 Tn some places the trenches presented
 a horrible sight, being heaped with Ger man corpses, many of whom had beer blown to pieces by our bombardment On the extreme right the Germans were pressed back along their communication trenches in such large numbers that they
 occa sionally formed an excellent mark
 for the machine guns in our own lire
 to the north of Givenchy, which did grea.
 execution at certain points.