GERMAN DIVISIONS CUT TO PIECES

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume XLV, Issue 6856, 23 April 1917, Page 3

GERMAN DIVISIONS CUT TO PIECES

Enemy Making Desperate Fesis-

tance at St Quentin Australian and N Z Gable Assoc Kec April 22, 5 o y m

Paris, Aprli 20 Details of the French offensive show that the. Gerrnaus received heavy reiuforcements, The eftect of the bombardment in the crowded trenches was terrific. The army between Soi and Oraon.jo won a brilliant success. Two attacks were delivered against Mantirae and Braye. The Germans managed to hold the positions between the two villages, but the second assault "achieved excellent results The troops ascended the slopes of the plateau north of the -valley, which th'a Germans were using as the northern pivot of their withdrawal from the Somtne. The French capture of Aille, at the foot-of the northern slope of ; tbe plateau, was quite as striking a3 the capture of Vimy Bidge, pad it was cleared at one rua except the summit at Craonne. Most important results are expected from the capture. of Burtebish Farm

The army operating from Craonne to north of Khoirns engaged in the fiercest fighting in the neighbourhood o* La ViHeau Bois, where the forest was very strongly organised and packed with Mitrailleuses. A clever French manoeuvre ended in surrounding ac important body of the enemy, which surrendered en masse, with many machine guns, the prisoners exceeding 1,700.

The snow-clad ground east of Rhoims curiously assisted the attackers. The Germans, •■ half frozen and dazed by the bombardment, were so blinded by the reflection of the sun that they were unable to use their machine'guns before the French were upon them. \

The Germans are making a desperate resistance before the French at St Quentin. The French carried the fortified village of Dufayet atthe point of the bayonet, capturing 400 prisoners, besides inflicting enormous losses on the Germans in killed and wounded

The prisoners are mostly thin and pale and shewed evidence of great fatigue. The majority are of puny build, a very different, type to those captured in 1914 or the crack troops used at Monchy and Lagnicourt. Two German divisions that attacked the French at Juvincourt were cut::to pieces by the French artillery. An-' other divisian lost its way like the Germans at Lagnicourt. It blundered against its own barbed wire and was only extricated at the cost of a large proportion of its effectives.