25,000 PRISONERS TAKEN

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 228, 24 September 1918, Page 5

25,000 PRISONERS TAKEN

ANOTHER 40,000 SURROUNDED PROGRESS IN MACEDONIA The rout of the Turks in Palestine is daily becoming more complete, and it is now asserted that their Palestine army has ceased to exist. So far 25,000 prisoners have been counted, while many more have been taken but have not yet reached the cages. The one outlet, towards the east, by which the broken army was attempting to get away has now been closed, and forty thousand men have been surrounded, their ultimate escape being regarded as very improbable. The main road and railway crossings of the Jordan are all in the hands of the British. The New Zealanders closed one of these and gathered in eight hundred prisoners. The Serbians continue to make satisfactory progress north-east of Monastir, and they have now cut the UskubSalonika railway, the main line of supply for the Bulgarian troops who are opposing the French and British on the Serbian right. Reinforcements..have been sent to the Bulgarian front.

The French operating to the south-east of St. Quentin have reached Vendouil, on the banks of the Oise. They successfully repulsed raids on the Vesle front. There has been heavy fighting on the British front round Epehy, where the warfare partakes of the nature of the old trench fighting. The German moral shows many signs of weakening, particularly opposite the Australians, where positions have been given up after little fighting, though the High Command ordered them to be held at all costs.