FRENCH ENTRENCHED BETWEEN CERNA AND VARDAR.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 280, 24 November 1915, Page 5

FRENCH ENTRENCHED BETWEEN CERNA AND VARDAR.

DEFECTIVE COMMUNICATION WITH THE" BASE. BRILLIANT CROSS-COUNTRY MARCH TOWARDS PRILIP. LONDON, November 23. A French report states that Bulgarian attacks on the Allies on Friday aid Saturday were repulsed. Cabling from Salonika, Mr. Ward Price, the war correspondent of the "Daily Newsj" says:—"The French are holding fifteen miles of a triangular plain pointing to Kuprili, and bounded by the Cerna River on the west and the Vardar River on the east and north. Both are unfordable. The triangle includes good water, three villages, houses for billeting, and landing places for aviators. "The French also hold the gloomy height of Karahodjali. When General Sarrail, commander of the expedition, arrived, he saw the immense importance of the height, and ordered its immediate captura. No bridge crosses the Vardar. but a crazy old Turkish boat was found by which a whole regiment was ferried over, the boat coming and going day and night. The Bulgarians were driven out. Later they realised their mistake, and made repeated attempts to recapture the height, but were repulsed with heavy losses. "The chief difficulty of the French position is that every man and every ounce of munitions and supplies must be carried on a single line of railway. There is not even a road. Moreover, the railway passes through narrow ravines, the longest being ten miles—that of Dcmir Kapu Gorge, northward of Strumnitza, the northern end of which is so precipitous that the train only finds an exit by a tunnel over the last 100 yds. If the tunnel were blown up a few guns would suffice to prevent it being repaired. "General Sarrail made a brilliant cross-country march in order to join up with the Serbians at Bubuna Pass, near Prilip. He reached to within ten .miles, after desperate fighting, in which the French were outnumbered by three to one." Allied journalists visited the French front at Strumnitza and on the left bank of the River Ccrna. Officers state that the Bulgarians are good artillerymen and clean fighters, observing the rules of war and the dictates of humanity. They never fire on the ambulances, and scrupulously avoided interfering with the work of collecting the dead and the wounded. A Geneva report states that the occupation by General yon Koevess of Novi Bazar was due to his receiving reinforcements following heavy losses. The mountain routes were covered with dead and dying. His casualties in five days numbered 25,000.