GERMAN CAPTURE OF DIXMUDE

FIGHT FOR THE DYKES ATTACKERS SUFFER HEAVILY PARIS, 14th November. The army corps commander ordered the Germans not to return alive if they did not take Dixmude. The conflict proved to be a fight for the dykes. It was impossible to use the heavy guns, oiving to the morass. The Germans cleverly surmounted the difficulties, carrying machine guns across the inundated areas. During the battle both sides were fighting in the water. The earliest of the German onslaughts resulted in the slaughter of 80 per cent, of the attackers, who were unable to cross the Hooded fields speedily. Finally, the corpses formed a footway for the' infantry^ which followed. Many of the German wounded were drowned : some, realising that there was no chance of rescue, begged their comrades to kill them. After the capture of Dixmude the Germans attempted to cross the Yser on the right and left of the town, but were repulsed, their communications with Dixmude being endangered. The Allies then shelled Dixmude with shrapnel and high explosive shells until the Germans were threatened with extermination. A bayonet charge enabled the French marines to recapture the greater "part of the town. The Germans had been holding a number of isolated farms amid the flooded region around Nieuport, and the Allies' infantry were unable to reach them, but the artillery finally forced them to fly from the burning buildings and pitiless shell fire. AN OFFICIAL REPORT Official. — " The German attacks between the Lys and the sea are less keen. The Allies at some points have resumed the offensive. The German attack on Nieuport has failed ; the attempts to advance south-east and east of Ypres have been checked, and the Prussian Guards' attack south of Ypres has been repulsed. We have advanced about a mile eastward of Bixschote, and have progressed between the La Bassee Canal and Arras. " The struggle in the Argonne has been fiercely renewed, and the German attacks have failed. The German attacks at various points in the Lassigny region and on the Aisne have been unsuccessful." DIXMUDE DIFFICULT TO DEFEND (Received November 16, 9 a.m.) PAIIIS, 15th November. A communique states : " The enemy's efforts during the past few days resulted in nothing but the re-taking of ruined Dixmude, whose isolated position renders its defence difficult. " Yesterday things were quiet, except north-east and south of Ypres, where we repulsed several attacks, with heavy German losses." [It was reported a few days ago that Dixmude, which was largely built of wood, had mostly been burnt as the result of the artillery fire, before the Germans recaptured it.] . • TOWN RECAPTURED BY THE ALLIES LONDON, 14th November. The Allies recaptured Dixmude early on Wednesday morning last. GERMANS' GREATEST ANXIETY (Times and Sydney Sun Services.) ' LONDON, 14th November. Rotterdam reports that the Germans are preparing defensive works on a large scale round the environs of Bruges and the coastal region, and replacing bridges they had previously destroyed. Rome reports state that the Germans' greatest anxiety will shortly be a shortage of ammunition, as the result of the British Fleet preventing the delivery of copper to Germany. TO INUNDATE THE COUNTRY AMSTERDAM, 14th November. The Germans are preparing to blow up a culvert under the Bruges-Sluis Canal, thereby inundating a stretch of the country. _ [Sluis is a small town in Holland, close to the Belgian border about ten miles north-east of Bruges.] BELGIAN LOSSES BERLIN, 14th November. The Lokal Anzeiger estimates that the Belgian losses on Wednesday last were six thousand killed and eight thousand wounded. A GOOD DAY FOR THE ALLIES _ . , T , , , PARIS, 15th November. Official. — We had a good day from the sea to a point north of Lille, and repulsed German attacks north of Zonnabeke and South of Ypres, where the enemy lost heavily. The enemy unsuccessfully attempted an attack between La Bassee Canal, Arras, and the Libona district.