_Friday, March 29._--The enemy's pressure has for the time being relaxed
a little across the Somme, east of Corbie, and whatever effort he has
made during the last day and night has been repulsed with the most heavy
losses.
Yesterday the most exciting situation and the fiercest struggle was on
the left of the British battleline, from Gavrelle southward to below the
Scarpe. It was a deliberate, resolute effort by the enemy to capture
Arras. Three divisions of special storm troops, the 184th, 12th, and
27th Reserve, had been brought up for this purpose, though one of them
had been engaged before and roughly handled. They were ordered to take
Arras yesterday at all costs, and before their advance very heavy
bombardment was flung over the British lines from about 5 o'clock in the
morning for several hours.
Their main thrust was toward Roeux, that frightful little village, with
its chemical works, which I used to write about so much in April and May
last. Once again yesterday it became a shambles. The British had machine
guns well placed with a wide field of fire, and as the Germans came down
the slopes they were swept with streams of bullets, which cut swaths in
their formations, but once again, as on March 21, the enemy was reckless
of life, theirs as well as the British, and always his tide of men
flowed forward, passing over dead and wounded, and creeping forward like
flowing water. The British field guns raked them while the heavies
pulled further back to avoid being blown up or captured.