LATEST WAR NEWS

Marlborough Express, Volume LI, Issue 83, 10 April 1917, Page 8

LATEST WAR NEWS

A SLEDGE-HAMMER BLOW.

QUICKNESS 'OF THE BRIITSH ADVANCE.

ENEMY'S PLANS FRUSTRATED,

(Tuess Association.!

Australian and N.Z. Cable Association

(.Received April 10, 1.55 p.m.) LONDON, April 9. Mr Philip Gibbs, in his report tele- . graphed to-day, says':—"The attack covers a twelve mile front south of Givenchy and Engohclle. It is a .sledge-hammer blow threatening to bi'eak the1 northern .end of yon Hin- • denburg's line, already threatened at i St. Quentin. As soon as the-enemy were forced to/',wcreat east of Bapaume and PerOfine they hurried up divisions and gtt&s northward; to c counter nix attack there, meanwhile preparing a new J line of defence to the southward. Tliey hoped to • escape there before our new attack . wa3 ready. We have been too quick, . and their plans have been frustrated. Thus another titanic conflict, upon which almost everything depends, • comnienced to-day. "I have seen fury, but this is the beginning of the niost tragic and frightful nightmare ever seen. With infernal and indescribable splendour ;the preliminary bombardment of seyerai days reached its height yesv.ierday. In Arras it was hell itself, the enemy flinging, high explosives Into.the city, clouds of shrapnel bursting overhead, arid scattered shells exploding all round the country. Our bombardment swept Vimy from ridge to ridge. Above the Ar^as-Cambrai .r road it was one continuous roar of -death. Every bYittipry' was fixing j steadily. Ifc was/tragic irony,; in remembrante,: that,'the ; eye of the.new' , conflict. 'was/'_ Eastpr Sunday. y.-.The , church b^lls behind the battlefield ■ were'ringing'out'1, the .mqssago of the risen Christ, but it was no.truce of God. As I • went up the road to-; wards the front .ti-enciies 1 saw the .'fighting,men ..standing in a'hollowsquare with bowed hotels, the chaplain conducting the Easter service. Peasants within shelling distance were ploughing tlieir fields. "Elsewhere the .foisly preparation for the advance was the vast, concentration of itifiiiitry necessary,,, to attack the great natural fortresses facing Arras, which were defended by the German,massed guns. Our artil- "' lery supply columns moved up in an ■■' endless tide. At the road sides men could be seen with stacked' rifles writing letters home. , Before dawn they t were in the" midst;of the battle." •