ALLIES' PREPARATIONS FOR GREAT ADVANCE

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 68, 20 March 1915, Page 5

ALLIES' PREPARATIONS FOR GREAT ADVANCE

MILLION AND A HALF TROOPS READY FOR FIELD. TROOPS MOVING ACROSS CHANNEL FOR TWO MONTHS. r ff NEW YORK, March 19. A message from Paris indicates the magnitude of the preparations made ty the Allies for a big advance. The carrying capacity of all roads has bean increased, in order to cope with the enormous quantities of munitions which are being transported to the front. Thousands of motor vehicles are also being employed. In addition to Britain's new army of a million men, which has been moving across the Channel during the past couple of months, France has a million men, splendidly equipped and ready to take the field at a minute's notice. The artillery brigades have been augmented by thousands of new guns, which have been parked in convenient positions ready for immediate use. A thousand wounded Indian soldiers have arrived at Brighton. The Gordon Highlanders lost their colonel and 12 other officers killed and wounded at Xeuve Chapelle. Lord Claude Hamilton states that the Grenadier Guards lost their colonel and 16 officers. Only 300 out of 1,100 men escaped without injury. The Cameron Highlanders seemed to have been wiped out.