GERMAN RETREAT MORE BRITISH GAINS

FROM PHILIP GIBBS. BRITISH HEADQUARTERS (FRANCE), WEDNESDAY. The enemy’s withdrawal and our advance to the south-west of Bapaume still continue. Last night the German troops abandoned Gommecourt, and our men followed the first patrols, who had felt forward and took possession of the salient which keeps to the line of the park surrounding the famous old chateau. This entry into Gommecourt without a fight will seem most sensational. It was here on July 1 last year that waves of London men assaulted an almost impregnable position, and by the highest valour and sacrifice broke and held its lines until forced back by massed gunfire which threatened them with annihilation. Many of our dead lay there, and the place will be haunted for ever by the memory of their loss and great endurance. Last night the gates were open. The enemy’s troops had stolen away in the dusk, leaving nothing behind but the refuse of trench life and the litter of trench tools. In order to keep the way open for their withdrawal, strong posts of Germans with machine guns held out in a wedge just south of Rossignol (or Nightingale) Wood and in Biaz Wood, which is west of Bucquoy. These rear-guard posts, numbering an officer or two and anything between thirty to sixty men, with machine guns, and probably telephones keeping them in touch with the main army, are chosen for their tried courage and intelligence, and stay behind with orders to hold on to the last possible moment. They are doing so with determined spirit. All the tricks of war are being used to check and kill our patrols. In addition to trip wires attached to explosives, German helmets have been left about with bombs concealed in them so as to explode on being touched, and there are other devices which are ingenious, but hardly worth the trouble. Snipers and machine-gunners give our men greater trouble, but are being routed out from their hiding-places. There were a lot in the ruins of Puisieux, but last night, after sharp fighting and a grim man-hunt among the broken brickwork, the enemy was destroyed in this village, and our line now runs wall beyond it to Gommecourt, on the left and down to Irles on the right. The enemy has destroyed Irles Church tower, as he has destroyed the Church of Achiet le Petit, and the famous clock tower of Bapaume, on which we tried to read the time from the high ground westward during the battles of the Somme. This is to get rid of observation which might be useful in our advance.