The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-09-12
Copyright 1917. by International News Bureau)
Epic Story of An Heroic Struggle Against odds
 Fighting Until They Died.'
BY PERCIVAL PHILLIPS With the British Army in the Field.

I ments of marines crept round on the seashore with machine guns and en- filaded the position of the riflemen, while a simultaneous attack from the ! Lombardtzyde defences on the other side of the hard-pressed Northamp- , tons sought to cut off the battalions from the south.
 1 We have very few details of the ac- tual fighting among the dunes, but the handful of Englishmen left there were able to hold up the enemy for more than an hour.
 | They met the marines with bombs, with clubbed rifles, with bayonets. The right supporting company of Northamptons "put up a devil of fight until nearly all of them were killed.' Two platoons of riflenren iso- lated in the dunes, fought to the last man.
 | A party of five other riflemen who survived the bombardment were cut off by the German bombers and \ap- parently refused to surrender, for all were killed.
 1 The marines found the entrance to the tunnel near the sea, where some, of the rifle battalion officers and men were sheltering. They flung bombs into it and sprayed it with machine gun. Then, apparently convinced I that no one had been left alive, they continued their search of the dunes In the direction of the canal bank. Later they returned and again bomb ed the tunnel.
 | It appears that at least some of the occupants managed to escape across the canal later, but I have no infor- nation as to the fate of the com manding officer and others who mov- ed there from the wrecked battalion l headquarters. . I A sergeant of the Northamptons gives us a glimpse of what must have been the final scene in the dunes. It was half-past eight and a little party ! apparently rallied around their head quarters, which had been repeatedly attacked by parties of marines. : The sergeant, who was wounded was staggering back, hoping to reach the infantry on the right of the Northamptons and warn them to form a defensive flank and prevent tn enemy pushing down on Newport I-which they did. He looked back at the battalion headquarters for the last time. and saw the five or six surviv- ing officers fighting gallant1y, sur rounded by Germans. \ l other acts of heroisnn may never be known. It is hoped that some of them will come to light later when the soldiers who have returned are l able to relate their experiences in det tail, but we know of two other incl cents of this desperate struggle which further show the spirit of the men,
 machine gun officer rescued one of his guns from a battered communi- cation trench when the marines came swarming through the dunes, and carried it down to the canal bank, where he brought it into, action and fired it until the gun jammed. Then he threw 1t in the canal and swam across.
 A Northampton gunner stuck to his post in the sand, although wounded. and continued to work his gun until a fragment of.-shel1 badly, wounded him a second time. As he lay disabled beside his gun, angry but not afraid. a comrade came up and prepared to carry him on his back, with the inten- tion of swimming the canal.
 "It doesn't matter a damn about me- said the wounded man. Smash the gun" The German bombers were very near and the friend had to choose quickly Finally he yielded to the others entreaties and 4profane threats He took away the gun, and left the wounded man quietly waiting for his enemies.
 When night fell the marines had possession of all the ground down to the canal bank for distance of about 1,400 yards inland, and they had ad- Il vanced their line towards Nieuport l from Lombardtzyde
 I They had not been able, however, completely to clear the dunes Here land there survivors lay hidden in the sand, and under cover of the dark ness they slowly and painfully crawl ! ed over the wreckage of, the battle field, to the steep bank of the canal.
 Those who could swim dropped into the foul water and made their way to the opposite bank. Others halted at the waters edge, unable to swim and apparently trapped. They were saved by rope.
 The story. as have it, but without confirmation, is that a soldier on the southern bank volunteered to swim
 across the canal with the rope, and did so flashing it firmly on the other side. One by one his comrades grop- ed blindly through the water clinging
 to the rope and were saved.