Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1916-07-05
8 FR|GH|TFULLY
UNDER BRITISH GUNF|RE
Germans Remain in Their Dugouts
While Shells Smash Up Ground
s Above Them.
Heroic STORY or Go>NlEcouRT
!AttacE Is One of Most Brilliant
Things in All British History.
Soldiers, ms on Parade. Advance
in Informal Fire.
RY PHILIP GIIiBS.

ny PHILIP GIHBs.
81 WITH THE BRITISH ARMY IN
fFLANDERS, July 4-To-day went
into the heart OF the battle fields IN
9S and around Fricourt, where tho Brit
& ish have made their most successful
advance,
At La Boisello the Smelling was still
Il intense, but our troops already had
%surrounded part OF the position. and.
IS after the concentration OF the fire Of
Stheir guns, had advanced and captured
Git.
81 A number of Germans wcre there
Il in the dugouts. the remnant Of the bat
u TALON which suffered friCh,ful things
81 under the British cuu;irc. About $50
Il men had stayed in the ducouts with
g out food or water while the shells
q made a fury above them and smashed
Sup the ground. They had German
4 doctor, a giant with great heart.
who had put his first-aid dropping
q station in the sccond-linc trench. and
Nhad attended the wounded there until
the British bombardment was in
fenSffed that no man could live there.
He took the wounded down to this
Il death, but then. he told me. about II
O'Clock this morning the stream OF
shells ceased, and after a sudden ST
lence he heard the British and went
s;up to the entrance OF the dugout. To
}some soldiers who came in with fixed
bayonets he said:
SMy friends surrender"
HELPS BRITISH WOUNDED
Afterwards he helned tend TO the
British wounded under fire of his own
/ guns, which were now turned upon
this position.
Another German with whom talked
to-day al La Boiselle was one of the
Il machine Eunners who kept up the fire
when we list made our assault. and
sto-day. though wounded in nine places.
when we found him he was still work
ing his terrible little gun. The Brit
Nish took him prisoner and bore him
| no grudge, but sang his praises.
Many other machine guns were cap
Btured. and around one OF them all OF
the team were laid out dead by one
of our shells.
had talk with German medical
officer. who. after describing his ex
= sadly.
81 ''In this war" he said we go on
Iilling each other to no purpose We
arc being bled to death and will he
Impoverished for many long years. 1t
5is a war against religion and against
|! civilization, and | see no need for it.
|fGermany is strong, England Is strong,
and France is strong. II is impossible
for one side TO press the other, SO when
Sis the end to Gomez"
Apart from his fellow officers stood
q: German lieutcnant-colonel. charged
With having killed two Of the British
officers by bombing them after his sur
rendcr--.a tall gloomy, trucui-nt man
OF the worst Prussian type
ONE or MOST HEROIC Things
N ALI. BHIrISU HISTORY
To-day J heard the story OF the at
tack on the Gommccourt salient, which
shows that this action was one Of ;hc
s most heroic things in British history.
The Germans had concentrated a great
mass of guns hero in the belief that
The British main attack was 10 extend
from Lille to Robe
JAS soon as the British l"f, their
5 trenches after tM onl,ardmcn, YES
tcrday the Gc.4n:tnS- directed :; bar
rage fire on the British front ana the
supper, trenches 1t was an Internal
fire. but the British advanced through
1T rs though on parade, and in spite
of their heavy losses, made their way
Il over 500 yards Of mo mans Land" TO
the German front line.
The German soldiers also behaved
with great courage and carried their
machine guns right through the Brit
iSh barrage fire untn thew faced ~.
British soldiers in the open and there
: swept them with their fire. droppIne
them in large nu!nb crS