THE FRENCH FORCE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXV, Issue 8305, 25 November 1915, Page 5

THE FRENCH FORCE.

A STRONG POSITION HELD

LONDON, November 23

Mr Renwickj in the " Daily Chronicle," describes a visit to the French ■ front in the Belastchitsa Mountains at night, and says that'it was a weird spectacle, fires dotting the hilltops and searchlights sweeping the valley and approaches. He visited Hill 160 | the key of the, position, and the importaut Hill 516, a lower eminence, which is pockmarked with shell-holes. Shrapnel bullets • could be f gathered' in cartloads, and there -..were, hundreds -of- • abandoned rifles, lying on .the.- hill. -. From the Frenches:he.had a,good.View. . of the Bulgarian jines near, the .village . of Kosturino and Lslismaily, and saw duets between snipers in trees and at other points of vantage. A fierce combat waß fought on the Baybsecke, a tributary of the Tcherna, which marked the farthest point of the French advaace, and the result was ' that the French hold a strong position at the important bridgehead at Foysarts. This is a controlling point of the communication between the French position and the, Trchange'l heights, facing Gradska, on the Nish-Salonika railway. It also dominates the route to Ruprili (Veles). "The enemy attacked the, French position, r and T distinguished the wherealwuts of their artillery by the smoke rising (on the hillsides. Then the French infantry advanced with rifles and machine guns. It was slow work, but eventually the top was reached, and after a fierce bayonet encounter the enemy was dislodged."