Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 191, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 August 1916 — SURRENDERS TO HUNGER; NOT FOE [ARTICLE]

SURRENDERS TO HUNGER; NOT FOE

Prussian Guard Maintains Iti Reputation for Bravery. OVILLERS A RUBBISH HEAP British Capture of Town Result of Bitterest Fight in Battle of Somme —Dogged and Desperate Defense.

By PHILIP GIBBS.

With the British Army in the Field. —ln all the recent fighting the struggle for Ovillers stands out separately as a siege in which both attack and defense were of the most dogged and desperate kind. The surrender of the remnants of its garrison ends an episode which will not be forgotten in history. These -men were of the Third Prussian Guards, and the tribute paid to their bravery by our commander in chief is re-echoed by the officers and men who fought against them. It is a tribute to our own troops also, who, by no less courage, broke down the stubborn resistance and captured the garrison.

Town Now Rubbish Heap. Many different battalions had • share in the fighting. All had suffered and then gave way to new met) who knew not the nature of this bush ness, but set grimly to work to carry on the slow process of digging out the enemy from' his last strongholds. It was almost literally the work of digging out The town of Ovillers does not exist. It was annihilated by bombardments and made a rubbish heap of bricks and dust But after that, when our men were separated from the enemy by only a yard or two or by only a barricade or two, the artillery on both sides ceased the fire upon Ovillers,. lest the gunners should kill their own men. They barraged Intensely round about. Our shells fell incessantly to the nortit and east, so that the beleaguered garrison should not get supplies or re-enforcement; we made a wall of death about them. But though now no shells burst over the ground where many dead lay strewn, there was artillery of a lighter kind, not Jess deadly. It was the artillery of machine guns and bombs. The Prussian guards made full use of the valued cellars and ruined houses. They made a series of small keeps, which were defended almost entirely by machine gun fire. Between the attacks of our bombing parties they went below ground into dark vaults, where it was safe

enough from trench mortar and hand grenades, leaving a sentry or two on the lookout for any Infantry assault As soon as we advanced the machine guns set to work and played theh hose of bullets across the ground which our men had to cover. Guard Finally Gives Up. One by one, by getting around about them, by working zigzag ways through cellars and ruins, by sudden rushes oi bombing parties led by young officen of daring spirit, we knocked out these machine gun emplacements and the gunners who served them, untllyesterday there was only a last remnant of the garrison left in Ovillers. These men of the Third Prussian Guard long had been in a hopeless position. They were starving because all supplies were cut off by our neverending barrage; they had no water supply, so suffered all the tortures of great thirst. They were living In a charnal house strewn with the dead bodies of their comrades and with wounded men delirious from lack of drink. Human nature could make no longer resistance, and at last the officers raised the signal of surrender and came over with nearly 140 men, wh« held their hands up. The fighting had been savage. At close grips, In broken earthworks and deep cellars, there had been no sentiment and British soldiers and Germans had flung themselves upqn each other with bombs and any kind of weapons, but now, when all was ended. the last of the German garrison was received with the honors of wai and none of our soldiers deny them the respect due to great courage.