Connecticut western news., 1916-09-07
PERSONAL TALES
 OF BRITISH PUSH
Wounded Tell of Thrilling Mo- ments In PiGardy Charges.
BOOK STOPPED TWO BULLETS
Hundreds Killed and Wounded on Both Sides as the English Opened Their offensive-ArtiIIery Work a Marvel of Exactness-Praise German 5rav- cry.


 cry.
 London is now being thrilled by the stories of the push on the Somme, which the wounded soldiers have l brought back. Sorely wounded as many are, and after a Journey which all the care made barely endurable, the men still jingle with the thrill of the charge, and their talk is all of the rush.
 We went over in grand style" said sergeant recalling the assault on Montauban, "and found the place in an awful mess. Most of the houses had been knocked head over heels-the only ones I saw standing were a cou- pie of cafes. As we came on we saw lots of Germans running out of the back of the village, but there were plenty of them monkeying about the ruins. We divided the company up into groups of six, but as we neared the village we joined up again. My five pals and myself saw some in a Mills bomb through the window and
 
 "As We turned the corner we saw a German lying round the end of wall. He'd got machine gun and had made little emplacement with bricks He turned the blamed thing on he and got me in the foot. It didn't stop me, though, and when I was getting near to him felt two kicks oTer the heart I didn't wait to see what happened, but simply went at him and bayoneted him. couldn't go on much farther. so sat down to see what was the damage.
 Book Stopped Bullets.
 My foot was pretty bad, but when I looked at my left hand breast pocket saw two holes in it. I orened my pock- ct and found that two bullets had gone through my metal shaving mirror, through my pocket case and had nosed their way into book I was carrying. Funnily enough, earlier il the morning my officer gave mc the book and said could read it when I got into the Ger man trenches, so 1 put it in my pocket, little thinking that I should Ge able to read a bit of 1t on hospital ship coming back. The two bullets after piercing the mirror and case had met ard fused into one lump O. metal.
 ''I saw three Germans come up to two of our fellows and throw down their rifles. So our boys chucked down theirs, too, and went out for them with the.r fists, and they didn't hals give them dusting.
 ''As we were going into Montauban | we saw German machine GLnner up n tree. He'd got the neatest little plat form you ever saw painted % that it was almost i@visi.le. We st him.
 The spirit of CT boys w&s sp,c-d did. They simply lov>l tic fla. One of them got blown U1 by aar!:. He scene rrctty dIHcd. bG9 h2 ricked himseiI up and calCe along. All he said vas, 'C.l. t..Gi must hc war on after all, l S>.n &r
 We had ci::?:cl the first two lines and on Gc.:..l% int th2 third We saw the GermI..s coming up from the two exits of CrHg GU.s0Ut and pairing off down the tr2ach. Our platoon com nander got into the trench and picked them off as they t&nle out. He, had Di siGe of him, say fifteen yards away. He was as cool as CucumGer. He simply turned rom right to let and fired just as ii he was in a shooting gallery. It was the best bit of fancy shooting I've Scen.'
 Artillery Called Magnificent.
 \ sergeant major of the Middlesex speaking of the work of English artil- lery, said: They were simply magnif- cent, and as we advanced they lifted trench by trench. The battalion went over and oI in fine style. 1t vas just like a parade, and the men felt con tident. aS they knew that large re- serves were behind them. We soon get into the German front trench. I saw very few living, but i'll the sec ond and third lines we found few. At the bottom of the deep trenches were plenty of dead and iii the dug outs too
 A corporal in the Northumberland ruSiliers gave e picture of the pre- cisiOn with which the assault was car ried out
 Just on time," he said. the first lines went away, not hurrying a bit, just taking it easy. Then came the second line. Of course there were gaps, but these were soon filled. Then went i the third line, and I followed up with the supports. Everything was going \ 1.
 "The artillery was lifting from trench to trench, and we were follow ing on step by step. It was just like a field day. The carriers with bombs and ammunition kept on coming along as cheerful as anything, and then later in the day I got moved back into our own front lines and on to the dress ing station.''
 One man who had been at Manetz said that in the German trenches they found plenty of men, but as far as they could judge bombs were the chief weapons, not rifles. Several men spoke of the comparatively sDaH number of rifles in the trepches.