Perth Amboy evening news., 1915-09-30
GRAPHIC PICTURE
OF BRITISH FRONT
ThunderS of Artillery Duel are
Heard Many Miles in Rear
No Thought of the Cost.
BY FREDERICK PALMER.

British Headquarters, trance.-Ine
British have retaken the mine crater
at Hooge in one of the most pictur-
esqus actions which has happened
along the British front for a long
time, without counting the novel way
in which bag of prisoners was made.
Hooge is the name OF what was once
a village in region as fiat as a bill
lard table. 1t is in the Ypres salient.
AS for the nature of life in the Ypres
salient there is the testimony of Ger
man prisoners who say that when
man on their side is assigned to 1t
the saying is that he may consider
himself as good as lost.
1t is generally agreed that more
blood has been spilled in the Ypres
salient than over any similar length
Of line on the western front, with the
exception of Souchez, where the
French made their great attack in May
and June.
The blowing up of mine under the
German trench some weeks ago made
Hooge about the hottest point in the
Ypres salient. 1t was one Of the
largest mines the British had ever
exploded to begin with, and it made
a hole in the earth about Al feet deep
and 70 feet across. The British charged
in and took possession of it.
In reply to the mine the Germans
brought up their flame ejector ap-
paratus, which they had tried on the
French before but now used on the
English for the first time. Mean
while around the edge of the crater
the two sides were only five feet apart
at one place.
The crater was so big, and it had
so disfigured the landscape that it was
very difficult to consolidate the po-
sition" as the official bulletins say,
particularly when showers of bombs
from either side punished any enter
prise on the part Of the other.
On top of a bombardment with ar
tiIlery of all the neighboring part OF
the British line where the trenches
were close together, the Germans sud
denly sprayed the British front with
fire over a section where their in
fantry attacked. The British had to
give up their crater and Hooge, too,
and some 500 yards of trench. When
they set out to recover it at first
they found the Germans had the line
bristling with machine guns, so they
got back one end of what they lost.
Reck Not the Cost.
The rule in the Ypres salient seems
to be never to lie down tamely under
any setback. Both sides fight to re-
cover a loss, no matter what the cast.
Sanguinary battles are waged for few
acres of ground.
All one day the British kept an al
most continuous roar Of shells over
other ry,s4rs;ts- ry,sr;tS Of the salient. They made
the German trencnRss.s boil with dust
under clouds of shrapnel smoke. The
German guns replied. They threw in
some moro 17-inch shells into the
ruins of Ypres and into other points
which they had not considered worthy
of 17-inch attention before.
The thunder OF this artillery duel
could be heard 80 and 40 miles to
the rear. 1t made a sound like the
roll OF a drum with almost no inter
walls between the shots. Nothing heav
ier had been heard since Souchez.
About two the next morning guns
which had been silent before came
into action. They all directed on the
German trenches at Hooge tons OF
high explosive and storms of shrap
mel. Then at 4:15 by all the watches
OF gunners and infantryrnen, the guns
stopped.
The next minute British major at
the head of battalion line leaped
over the parapet. As he said, he
found nobody hcme" The Germans
were in the dugouts according to the
custom on such occasions, taking shell
ter from the tornado of shell fire
which makes even a lookout hardly
possible. Turning the corner of a
traverse the major fairly bumped into
q German who apparently had come
out of his dugout to see whether the
shelling had sopped.
You're mine" said the major, put.
ting his revolver muzzle to the Ger.
mans breast. He promptly an.
swered that he was as the major ex.
pressed it