THE YPRES TIMES 71
PhotoImperial War MuseumCrown Copyright
GERMAN TROOPS ENGAGED IN THE GREAT OFFENSIVE.
wounded, all cheery and of good heartwe are going forwardBut here at last
comes the roaring of the first English shells, sometimes nearer, sometimes further
away, they strike into the panting masses as they advance, and where they strike
they reap a rich harvest. And so we walk wearily forward for hours across the
ground between us and our front linenow comes the command to take cover
until further orders. Obviously because we have been held up in front. Through
the never ending raging of the artillery duel, the cracking of rifles and machine-
guns is audible. No mistake! the English second line is being hotly contested,
and the enemy artillery is also now intervening more effectively. Barrages of
medium and heavy shells rain downwhoever gets into them will be blown to
atoms. Still nobody crawls into the dug-outs, but we all stand up in the trench
and absorb with all our senses the overpowering spectacle of the battle pounding
slowly forward.
in carrying out counter-battery work. On the other side of the tract of marsh
our first wounded were streaming back, the earliest news from our front. The
English first position had been easily taken, nearly all gas casualties, a stubborn
resistance in the second position, which was to be broken down by assault.
ForwardOnOn
At last the sun dispels the vapours of the March mist from the clouds of
battlea stupendous sightThe limitless plain, churned up with shell-holes,
is covered everywhere with advancing columns of infantry and artillery, while
pioneer companies are busy filling up the new shell-holes with fascines. Never
theless, the horses are in great difficulties, and the gasping gun-crews heave to
get their guns going again. And all the time a constant backward stream of limping
