SIR DOUGLAS HAIG REVIEWS THE FIGHTING.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 238, 5 October 1916, Page 5

SIR DOUGLAS HAIG REVIEWS THE FIGHTING.

METHODICAL ATTACKS WIN CONTINUOUS SUCCESSES. ■JnraiATCHED HEROISM OF THE ADTASCIKG ISTAItTBY. TCTAI, OF 26,725 PKISOJTSKS SXSTC2 ATTACK BEGAST. (Received 1.10 p.m.) LCXSDOX, October 4. Sir Douglas Haig, in a. further dispatch, reviews the recent fighting. He pays a tribute to the English and overseas troops, who exercised unrelajrfng pressure on the enemy's line, and beha-rea -with the discipline and resolution of veterans. "Ti i= hott possible." he adds, "to give a fuHer account of the fighting succeeding the advance of September 15. That advance, which won Courcelette, 3lartiirpuich., Highwood, Hers and Bouleaux "Wood, created several ffimor salients in our front. It therefore became necessary to advance our line between them. This was the task of the succeeding week- We carried the quadrilateral work on the ISth. This redoubt, which was of considerable strength and tactical importance, successfully resisted the attack of the Isth, thereby limiting the extent of the enccessea cm out right flank. GREAT STEESGTH OF THE ENEMAS POSITIONS. ""The weather was wet and stormy between the 19th and the 21st. We captured two lines of trenches on the 22nd, enlarging the advance between - Hers and llartinpuich, and gained ground eastward of Courcelette on the 23rd. "*By the evening of the 2ith we had completed preliminaries for the next fitage of the general advance on the 25th from Combles and Martinpuich. The country was gently undulating, while the villages in this area were surrounded hy trees, forming natural strongholds, fortified by every resource of modern engineering. —■ "We carried Lesboeufs and llorval on the 25th, advancing the.line over a, mile. The capture of llorval, combined with trench, pressure from the South, virtually isolated Combles, which fell next day as the result of a combined Anglo-French movement. TWENTY-NIKE DIVISIONS FDT OUT OF ACTIOK. "The capture of Guedecourt, Thiepval and the Zollern Redoubt followed, Eeveral thousand prisoners and a large amount of war material being captured. ITie Germans fought stubbornly, hoping to check the advance. They brought, since the 15th, against us seven new divisions, and against the French five. The severe and prolonged struggle demanded great determination and courage on our part"Since the opening of the battle on the Ist of July we took prisoner 26,725. men and engaged 3S divisions, of which 20 were withdrawn exhausted or broken. . We hold the uplands giving direct observation northward and north-eastward. The Germans have fallen back upon their fourth line behind a low ridge westward of the Bapaume-Transloy Road. The importance of the three months' offensive must not be judged by the distance advanced or the number of trenches taken, but by the effect upon the enemy's strength in numbers, material and moral. Our aircraft lias shown the highest degree of spirit of the offensive, and sr. patrolled regularly far behind the enemy's lines, while many air battles were y fought. For every machine crossing our lines, say, two hundred British cross . the German front. A captured Gentian, corps' report, describes oar aeroplanes j is surprisingly bold. Their work is conspicuaus for_ skilj, judgmajt, w<l <liji*y.' '