Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-06-17


War Correspondents Headquarters on
the Western Front. June IT..
Late Friday night and in the small
hours of Saturday some English and
scottish troops beyond the La Bassee
Canal, In front of Hinges. made a very
daring attack on the enemy's outpost
line on a front of about two miles and
captured a long strip of ground, with
zoo prisoners and about twenty-five
machine guns.
The exact locality of this operation
was between a place called La Pan
merle. on the left. and Les Choauax,
on the right. in the low flats of the
. mining country above Bethune, with
black Stag heaps high and conical
among the miners villages and the
steel works of pit heads, all broken
now by years of shell fire. which be
came most violent last April, when the
enemy drove across the Lys, came
closer to Bethune and flung shells
about all this countryside, killing
women and children behind the lines,
B swounding cattle in the fields and com
pleting the ruin Of villages like Hinges.
Germans in Torture
Since that fighting on the Lys the
German troops have not been living in
nice places, but. rather, in hell of
their own making. and as the British
still held observation Of their posi-
tons they could not make a trench
system without having it blown to
bits, as prisoners have described very
ruefully. In any case, however, the
(rnrrnnn ~ dnfn
outpost lines Is based on linked shell
craters and scattered gun posts rather
than on definite trench lines, which
are targets for British guns, and this
was how they defended the line par.
allel with La Bassee Canal.
The Germans in those pits and posts
were of the Eighteenth reserve divi-
sion, famous with their own people
and Infamous with the British as the
first German division to enter Belgium
at the beginning of the war and as
the authors of the campaign of
frightfulness at Louvain and Ter
monde. Since those days of shooting
civilians they have pursued the or.
dinary paths of war and fought
against the British during the Somme
battle of 1915, up in Flanders along
the Ypres- Menin road last year and
on the Lys last April.
Prisoners Are Tame
Probably there were men left who
belonged to the original army of Won
{. Kluck; but an American who went to
see the prisoners taken yesterday re-
marked, after profound meditation:
We'll, l guess they all have a most
c-minal cast of countenance."
.2%1 confess that those I saw today
|<s2eemed no better and no worse than
most Of the prisoners we take and
two of them sat as tame as lambs In
little mining cottage and were ex-
tremely polite to one Of the British
officers.
The Prussians Wurtembergers and
Mecklenburgers, of the Eighteenth re.
serve division, did not expect the at
tack that suddenly fell upon them the
other night. 1t was pitch black in
their lines before the new moon was
out or the clouds and in the dark
ness they were getting their ratfons
up and were satisfied with the quie.
tude of the British line. 1t was very
quiet there, but there were men wait.
ing tensely for the moment when they
were to follow a barrage of high ex-
piosives and go out upon a dark ad.
venture. Among them were some Suf.
folks and Gordons and others. Some
or their, officers and men were young
In years and war, but the proof of
their quality is in what they did.
Germans Surprised In Dark
1t was difficult thing, this attack
IN the dark, but they had trained hard
Tor 1t and knew what to do almost by
instinct, and were certain before they
went off that they would make a sue
cess of it, The attack began with a
short but intense barrage of field artil-
lery. while the "heavies' flung shells
over the enemys positions in the rear
nd lKAvN hi TrL
got away. and each had to keep his
sense of direction without any light to
guide him except the flash of gunflre
and bursting shells. They knew their
objective, and little groups of them went
straight to the German machine-gun
posts as unerringly AS though in broad
daylight.
The Germans We're utterly surprised
and aghast at the rapidlty of this at
tack which came at them out CT the
darkness. Many were taken prisoners
before they got to arms, but others had
time and made the most of 1t. 1t is
possible that on the left the Gordons
went past some of the machine-gun posts
without stopping them up Any how.
. both they and the Suffolks around about
La Pannerie had fierce fighting all night
IN routing out nests of machine guns
y which kept up fire upon them until
they rushed them at close quarters.
The Germans fought bravely there
and from shell craters and snipers' posts
held out until they were killed or forced
to surrender at the point of the bayonet
1t was not until dawn that the fight
was ever and all the ground cleared.
Yesterday and this morning the enemy
retaliated only by gunfire and shelled
Hinges and Les Choquaux heavily and
put 'woolly bears round about the
J country: saw them this morning burst
ing high But he has not yet sent his
infantry out in a cCunter-attack.
The prisoners taken have some intel
y ligent fellows among them, and one OF
them, man of superior education. takes
a gloomy view of the situation, which
should like to think reflects the gen.
eral opinion of his people. He says they
are not satisfied with the gains they
have made on the French front and are
downhearted because they are still SC
far from Paris after such tremendous
onsIaughts. In Germany. he says, the
delay in gaining a really decisive VIC
tory is severe disappointment. which
10 not helped by the fact that the food
situation Is increasingly grave. owing
to the reduction of the bread allowance
and the lack of meat. The peoples ex-
pectation of getting grain from Russia
has proved vain, ana German soldiers
from the Russian front say that tht
peasants there are SO mutinous against
the German authorities who commander
their grain that they are burning 1t.
The German troops on the western
front, this man SAYS. are becoming ex