ENEMY'S ARDOUR AT VERDUN WANING.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 68, 20 March 1916, Page 5

ENEMY'S ARDOUR AT VERDUN WANING.

CONFIDENCE IN VICTORY INCREASINGLY SHAKEN. EACH SUCCESSIVE BURST OF ATTACK LESS POWERFUL. JBeceived 11.45 ajn-Jj PARIS, March 19. A semi-official message reports that the latest fighting in the Verdun legion showed that the enemy's ardour was daily waning. His confidence in victory was being increasingly shaken. It is now likely that the successive bursts will gradually ease off because the enemy knows they are destined to be broken against the fortress. ENEMY LOSSES AT VERDUN ESTIMATED AT 300,000. THOUGHT IT WOULD BE THE LAST GREAT BATTLE. FIVE MILLION SHELLS TIRED IN A FORTNIGHT. PARIS, March 18. The German losses at Verdun exceed 300,000. German prisoners state that they were assured that Verdun would be the last great battle. A wave of depression and discontent had swept over the Crown Prince's army, they say, owing to the poorness of the food supplied to the men and to the ill-treatment to which they were subjected by the officers. Suddenly, about the middle of January, the attitude of the officers was changed. By orders from headquarters they began to mix with the men, and to talk familiarly about the coming offensive. Rations were increased and pay was raised. The men were told that a mass of artillery and hnge reinforcements were coming, and that the war would be over by the summer. The men thereupon took heart, particularly when troops arrived from Russia in the best of humour owing to having escaped the terrible climate of Poland. Batteries of heavy artillery arrived from all parts, and the cavalry was provided with fresh horses. Finally the men were ordered to advance, and they did so firmly believing that ''The Day" had come. It is estimated that the Germans at Verdun employed 3,000 guns, including a dozen loin howitzers throwing a projectile a ton in weight. Five million shells were fired in the first fortnight, including 100,000 fired at Douaumont in ten hours. A communique says: "We carried out a concentrated fire on the German trenches towards Hill 265 and Bois dcs Corbeaux, west of the Meuse. The enemy did not reply. A violent artillery action took place in the Vaux region, east of the Meuse. Artillery actions were intermittent in other portions of this sector, also at the Woevre. Our long-range guns all night bombarded the Apremont-Vigneulles Road, where enemy regiments were marching from the north."