DUE TO DRIFTING MINES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 69, 22 March 1915, Page 5

DUE TO DRIFTING MINES.

NO SLACKENING IN ATTACK.

HEAVY LOSS OF LIFE ON BOUVET.

ZEPPELIN RAID ON PARIS.

RUSSIAN SUCCESSES AT PRZEMYSL

The disaster in the Dardanelles, involving the loss of the British battleships Irresistible and Ocean and of the French battleship Bouvet, was due to the ships coming into contact with drifting mines, which were cast into the water at a point beyond the Allies' range of vision and carried among the fleet by the swift current which sweeps through the strait. The Bouvet sank in a few minutes, and only sixty-eight of her crew were saved by British ships, which pluckily braved the dangers of further mines and dashed up to the rescue. The losses did not lead to any decrease in the effectiveness of the attack. Fresh ships were practically ready to replace those lost, and next morning the bombardment was resumed with great fierceness, the giant guns of the Queen Elizabeth doing great damage to the forts on either side of the Strait, causing magazine explosions in forts Chanax and Kalid Bahr, and setting both forts on fire. The bombardment was continued on Thursday and Friday. The Russian Black Sea Fleet is approaching the Dardanelles, and there is panic at Constantinople. A Zeppelin fleet visited Paris early yesterday morning, but comparatively little damage was caused. Eight people were injured, only one seriously. A Taube flew across the Channel to Deal, but, being attacked by British planes, it dropped its bombs harmlessly into the sea and fled. The Russians repelled a sortie from Przemysl, and took over four thousand prisoners, who state that the number of killed and wounded in the beleaguered fortress is enormous. The Russians bombarded Memel prior to its capture, and the Germans have threatened to destroy three Polish villages for every one destroyed in East Prussia. The Russians, in reply, state that the troops defendi.%j the town assisted the civilians • to fire on the approaching Russians, and that the bombardment was necessary to overcome the resistance.