THE SOMME BATTLE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 235, 2 October 1916, Page 5

THE SOMME BATTLE.

DECISIVE SUPERIORITY ATTAUrED ST AXJLZES. TAX.ITE Or HIGH GBOVXBA - 1 HUH ARTHJLERT BI_E-TDE_-. ■ i (Australian and N.Z. Cable __ssociat_oE.) LG_CDO_v, October 1. ; The lull on the British and the French ironts has afforded an opportunity to correspondents for a general survey of the battle. Mr. Ashmead Bartiett" the "Daily Telegraph" correspondent, _____ visited the French front. He says: ~The guns cease fire only when seeking a fresh objective. Their piles of shells never seem to diminish, whereas the Germans have to save their ammunitionThe French command of the air is so complete that it is no longer necessary to conceal the guns. The German artillery has been fighting in almost total blindness since the enemy lost the high ground at Peronne. Many high explosive shells fail in the Somme River, throwing up fountains of mud. The Germans are relying on barrages against the Anglo-French assaults. 7 ' Writing of the British front, llr. Philip Gibbs insists on the importance of a continuance of fine weather, as mist prevents the aviators from reporting, and the enemy is able to mass troops for coumter-attaeks. Since our capture of the ridge, the Germans have not been able to move infantry, guns, or transport in daylight- The Germans on the Ancre and the Somme now know the torture of living always under the fire of great guns. Other correspondents sts.te that the prisoners taken on the British front last ; Sunday, .Monday, and Tuesday already ; numiier 6.000. " Tne tally is still inccrmplct_. We are pushing north of Flers, clearing the enemy out of very formidable positions, including sunken roads and trenches, which at an earlier stage of the battle would have cost long delay and many lives. But the enemy's resistance seems to have "lost its strength, and we have taken miles of trenches at incomprehensibly little coat.