The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1916-10-05

ndQ COuS0lloO ltS DIdluS W l1dhe
Thiepval the very last word in this
kind of Defence 1t was this sort Of
preparation which stopped the Brit
ish attack on July /. Then, as the
British infantry charged, after the
artillery bombardment, the Germans
popped out of their hiding places with
machine guns and swept the lines of
khaki with their deadly spray. Bit
by bit since July 1 the British have
worked their way forward. Last
week, when they went after Thiep-
val and the Zollern redoubt, the Brit
ish soldiers were at the doors of the
dugouts almost as soon as the last
shell of the preliminary lombard
ment had burst. A hurricane of
shell fire kept the Germans in their
burrows and when it had lifted the
British had arrived.
Kept the Faith.
Though the Germans in many dug
outs where their galleries of escape
were closed, surrendered in bodies, in
other instances they kept the faith
that the Hundred and Eighth would
die before it ever surrendered Thiep-
val. All of yesterday the British
were prying for the entrances to dug
outs in the blackened ruins of the
town amid the stencil of all kinds of
explosives as we'll as gas and lachry
matory shells. There was sporadic
hand-to-hand fighting and at inter-
walls Germans appeared from the bow
els of the earth with their hands up
and surrendered to the British SOL
diers who were smoking cigars found
in the German dugouts.
Persistent Digging.
An example of what persistent dig
ging will do in the extension of cel-
lars of buildings is given by Mouquet
farm, which the British took on the
18th. They blew in the mouth to all
the entrances of dugouts that they
could find and had advanced their
line we'll beyond the farm when a
British officer saw two Germans
standing on sort of Stag help close
to his side. They beckoned to him
and he thought that they were pris-
oners left behind, but as he went to-
ward them one shot him dead. Both
then disappeared in the earth. La
ter on other Germans came to the
surface and began firing into the
back of party of British pioneers
who promptly dropped their shovels
and took after the burrowers. When
the pioneers returned after fierce
underground melee they brought
with them as prisoners an officer and
fifty men. If is supposed that the
Germans here had found the forgot
ten tunnels of a Medieval monastery
and added auxiliary ones to suit their
own purposes.
Say They Lacked Support.
All observers agree that of late the
Germans, when left in isolated strong
points with orders to hold fast to the
death, are less inclined than former
ly to obey their instructions. An Of
ficer of the Second Prussian Guards
Reserve Division, who was captured
yesterday, was in a state of excep-
tional disgust and expressed himself
freely. 1--WE got no support from our
artillery" he said. ''The British had
double our number of guns and three
times as many aeroplanes, while our
aviators seemed to. have lost their
nerve My battalion was always put
in the worst possible position. Some
of my men who were given Rexa au-
tomato rifles, threw them down with
out waiting to fire when the British
charged. Machine gun squads and
last ditch parties are left to stick in
face of the British guns and British
charges with the assurance that if
they stick a counter-attack will res
cue them. But the counter-attacks
fail to materialize as they did at first.
I gave in! I had had enough"
However, the officers of the Brit,
ish staff spoke of t4is man in their
dispassionate way as man with a
grievance and paid tribute to the
stubborn bravery of the Germans in
the Zollern redoubt where he was
taken.
The British spent the following
day in taking ground in number of
smaller attacks in order to rectify
their new line.