SANGUINARY STRUGGLE DEVELOPING

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 112, 13 May 1915, Page 7

SANGUINARY STRUGGLE DEVELOPING

MUCH EVIDENCE OF THE TERRIBLE COST (Received May 13, 9.15 a,m.) LONDON, 12th May. The fighting, from Arras to the sea, is developing into a sanguinary struggle. There is no official news, but there is too much evidence that- it has been terribly costly. All news is entirely favourable to the Allies. Hopes are running high that the Germans have been cheeked along the Yser, although floods no longer stop their advance. The enemy resumed the stacks on Ypres on the 10th with reckless disregard for life. Everywhere there was appalling slaughter. The British renewed the attack on Aubers Ridge,, driving out the Germans from the villages of Aubers and Fromelles, and gained a footing on the ridge, where they were checked. Furious fighting continues. # The Germans' extensive and successive earthworks masked machine guns in ingenious concealments. Fighting with desperate courage and carrying out bayonet charges with unusual dash, the British, with aggressive courage, helped the French to the southward, where the Allies were already established on a ridge owing to the French capture of the villages of Vermelles, which was lost in December. FRENCH OFFICIAL REPORT (Received May 13, 10 a.m.) . . PARIS, 12th May. _ A communique states: — "The Germans, during a counter-attack last night, recaptured from the French part of the Loos and Vermelles trenches taken yesterday. We maintained our gains elsewhere." THE EASTERN OPERATIONS VIENNA CLAIMS RUSSIAN LINE BROKEN __ . , n VIENNA, 12th May. Official.— Our troops in the last two days have broken tho Russian lino at Debica (twenty miles east of Tarnow), compelling the forces south of the Vistula to retreat quickly behind Wisloka. The eastern wing in Poland is also retreating, evacuating the strongly-fortified Nida front, which is untenable.' RUSSIANS FALL BACK ON ASSIGNED POSITION ntß . . T PETROGRAD, 12th May. Official.— 'In the principal sector of the fighting, namely, in the region of Strycheff, an unfavourable situation was created on the evening of the 9th. The impetuous nature of the attack of our reserves against the enemy's right wing, which was attempting to pierce our front, arrested the German onset, and enabled the Russians to fall back quickly to an assigned position." KAISER WATCHES A BATTLE (Times and Sydney Sun Services.* LONDON, 12th May. A Berlin wireless message states that the Kaiser has arrived on the eastern front and witnessed a battle. (Press Association.) RUSSIAN REPORT (Received May 13, 9.15 a.m.) PETROGRAD, 12th May. The Russians are occupying a strong line on the Wisloka, twenty miles east of the previous lines at the Biala. _ Official. — Except for the temporary surrounding of General Korniloff's division, the fighting during the last nine days in Galicia has been uniformly composed of frontal attacks against Russian fortified positions, which the Germans have gradually occupied. The Russian losses have been great, but the enemy's have been enormous. The Russians taken prisoner are far fewer than alleged.