Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-09-04

easterly angle they had the help Of
a number Of tanks. The tank officers
and crews waited beside their engines
in tense expectation of dawn, when
they were to start on their new ad.
venture with many perils ahead Of
them.
Meanwhile, things as we now know
were happening on the enemy's side
of the lines. The German high COM
mand was expecting an attack, but
perhaps not quite so soon, and In
desperate anxiety to save the Drocourt.
attack the Canadians today in order
to defeat our plans, and 1t had scraped
together, as I have said, every avail
able unit from miles back of the line.
Into this country south of the Scarpe
they had flung up three fresh divi.
sions, the Third Reserves, Fifteenth
Reserves and the Sixteenth Division,
with the remnants Of the First
Guards, Second Guards Reserves,
Twelfth Reserves, Fifty.eighth and
Seventh Cavalry Division, dismount.
ed; battery of the Thirty.sixth and
the 111th Division. The Twelfth Re
serve had been badly broken at Bulle.
court; the 111th had suffered exceed
ingly two days ago at Bapaume and
the others had been hard hit.
It was a wild confusion Of men
fixed up with units not intended for
fighting in the line except in the last
ditch of despair and filled up with
some individuals of at least third
class physique, combed out from the
last and poorest reserves of German
manhood. Truly the German general
staff is hard pressed for man.power
to fight battles with. such mixed lots.
Boche Attack ForestalIed
They had intended, as I said, to at
tack this morning, and had assembled
for this purpose; but our attack broke
first. BY enormous labor and cour-
age our gunners had brought their
artillery forward over the battle
ground captured only a day OF two
ago and had many heavy guns, as
well as field batteries, in position;
so that when at o'clock, our bar
rage opened, it was terrific in power
and effect.
The enemy artillery was in posi-
ton. too, though not in such strength
and their gunners were fixing their
fuses and standing by ready to sweep
our lines with fire when ours broke
upon their lines. They found them
selves obliged to alter their range,
and one minute after our storm OF
shells burst they dropped down their
barrage onto our positions and roads.
1t was intense and terrible, but many
Of our men were already away beyond
| it's mean point Of impact" as the
gunners put it, and, owing to short
shooting, many German soldiers were
wounded by their own splinters and
direct hits.
Our men went away with the haze
of the earliest dawn. 1t was some
time. indeed, before the light pierceu
through the storm clouds and rain
showers and showed any glimmer
above those wide fields of desolation,
where the only landmarks are torn
woods and piles of ruin and white
chalk, parapets Of broken trenches
and shell-broken windmills and hum
mocks Of earth where the German
machine gunners lay in hiding, and
belts Of barbed wire tossed into broken
strands by our bursting shells.
The tanks moved forward over this
rough ground behind the first infantry
advance. trampling over the wire,
plunging over old trenches. searching
for German machine-gun nests, while
the lighter whippets went faster ahead
to round up prisoners and strike terror
into the trench garrison.
The German gunners watched for
their coming and tried to get direct
hits on them as they came. The first
German lines were stormed quickly
| by our men, and the German soldiers
were so panic-stricken by our advance
and SO shaken by fear of death that
they could not fight.
Screamed for Mercy
They crowded down in their dug.
| outs" said Canadian soldiers this
morning, who came back with many
prisoners or with wounds, "and scream
ed for mercy as soon as we were on
them. I'll never forget the sound Of
| those mems yells down there in the
darkness where they were jammed in
and afraid to come up. It was fairly
bloodcurdling."
l do not know how many prisoners
we took this morning. All that I
know is that 1 have never seen SO
many trooping back over the battle.
fields There is one road up which I
passed to the front which held
strange and tragic drama, and though
| I have seen many pictures of war
and the swirl Of many battles, shall
not forget the traffic of that road.
Today the battle was in full progress
away over there and our guns were
firing heavily; and now and then Ger.
man shells came over to ruined vii.
lagos on either side of this .winding
road, bursting with gruff coughs and
f1inging up vomits of smoke and