BRITISH DIVISIONS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 9309, 1 June 1918, Page 6

BRITISH DIVISIONS.

HEROIC RESISTANCE

PARIS., May 30

Stories of the heroic sacrincu oi' the four British divisions arc thrilling France. The Bth, 21st, 25th, and oOth divisions were sent to Berry au Bae co undergo a complete rest after their long engagements in Pieardy and FlaiiJers, where they had fought brilliantly. The Crown Prince's hordes broke suddenly upon the exhausted divisions, who were swamped with gas, charged by squadrons of tanks and assaulted by 20 German divisions. Yet the Britishers withstood this crushing superiority without flinching, and, moving back foot by foot, they held the heights after eight hours of hand-to-hand fightiug and massacre. At the end of the day nandfuls of the heroes, submerged by tke overwhelming mass, fell back across the Aisue.

The gallantry of the French troops at Soissous on Tuesday was equally .splendid. Their resistance constituted j. threat to the Germans pouring over che Vcsle. The German generals therefore launched two divisions upon the devoted Frenchmen, parties of whom fought to the last man. Fighting at boissons was furious. The town was .aken and 'retaken three times, and finally the French' occupied the heights immediately west of the town, where 'they are still holding out.

There was an. equally fierce struggle south-east of Soissons, where the French are now holding tlio hills south of the Crise stream.

General yon Isle again and again failed to take ilheims, and only accentuated the enormous losses suffered by the- enemy.

LONDON, May 30

The "Pall Mall Gazette's" military correspondent says that the loss of Soissons renders it possible for the enemy to widen the Compiegne-Mont-didier salient, from which a grand break through may feasibly be attempted. The ground south of the Vesle towards Paris is broken and studded with woods, offering extensive facilities ,for defence.