ATTACK PLAYS INTO BANDS OF FRENCH.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 50, 28 February 1916, Page 5

ATTACK PLAYS INTO BANDS OF FRENCH.

' NOT A SIEGE, BUT AN OPEjY BATTLE, £ RELATIVE UNIMPORTANCE OF VERDUN FORTS. PITIFUL SLAUGHTER OF ENEMY'S MASSED BATTALIONS. (Received 10.50 a.m.) PARIS, February 27. A neutral just arrived from Germany declares that he has learned from the best source that the Germans are ready to sacrifice two hundred thousand "men to capture Verdun. A wounded soldier says that the slaughter near Malaneourt was pitiful. The German infantry advanced in unbelievable fashion, averaging a man for every eighteen inches. They rushed forward quicker than tbe guns could be fired, and the French saw them falling over their own dead. Shells tore through the walls of flesh, but still they came on, as if fascinated, though there was no shouting or singing, as earlier in the war, just charging into our mowing machines. German newspapers admit appalling losses northward of Verdun. The "Frankfurter Zeitung" describes German regiments as fighting in a sea of fire. The Paris "Temps" says that the French took prisoner* in entire battalion of pioneers. It is reported that the Imperial Guards are supplied with two kinds of flame throwers, the smallest hurling a Same twelve yards and the biggest fiftyfive. Parisians were never more optimistic than to-day, and the Bourse has shown a'gradual rise since the beginning of the battle. Military circles are quietly confident, and are grimly glad that the long-threatened attackhas come. They describe the German advance In different, places as purely strategic, in fact, advantageous.to the French, since both sides are playing for stronger positions. According to a prominent French military critic, the French evacuated on their left wing a height extending from the south of Champncuville to Beaumont, upon which it would have been dangerous to prolong the stay, because the Meuse would have hampered the soldiers when falling back. The latter would be uneasy, knowing that the river was a short distance in their rear, accordingly all the first line retired to the heights between Poivre hillside arid Vauche Wood. The Germans are now assailing this position. The whole operation is not a siege, hut a battle against, one of the French armies. Itmust be remembered that the garrison at Vcfdun and its forts only figure in these combats as an element of resistance. The enemy's big guns might demolish Fort Douaumont without destroying anything but an inert block of concrete. Operations of such magnitude as described must be carried on to the end, despite snow. The Germans cannot remain long inactive awaiting better weather, while a thaw would render their position worse.