MOST SANGUINARY ENGAGEMENT

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 102, 27 October 1914, Page 7

MOST SANGUINARY ENGAGEMENT

PRESSURE ON YON KLUCK'S RIGHT DESPERATE EFFORT TO CROSS THE YSER LONDON, 26th October. Mr. Ashmead Bartlett and Mr. Phillip Gibbs, war correspondents, penetrated Dixmude and witnessed the fighting there on Wednesday. They state that it was one of the bloodiest engagements of the war. The Allies' pressure on General yon Kluck's right will force all the German armies to retreat thro.ugh the Ardennes or the gap at Longwy, hence" the desperate effort to cross the Yser Canal and reach tho coast at Calais. "A view from the _ tower of the Fumes Church on Wednesday showed that the whole countryside was a mass of burning villages. Approaching the firing line on every road there was a continuous stream of motor-cars. Hundreds of private cars were packed and under a medical officer were ready to ' go to any spfct for wounded", when a motor-cyclist rode up and indicated the place. Everywhere the shells were screaming as the big German howitzers, nick-named 'Jack Johnsons,' threw down houses and churches. "The gUns of an entire German army corps were concentrated on Dix- ¦ jnude, Few of the combatants were visible, but the German fire was terrific.

Little groups of peasants were compelled to risk escape when the cellars where they were refuging collapsed, and hundreds of mangled wounded lay unattended on the roads leading to Dixraude. One howitzer shell burst in the midst of a Belgian battery, and all six horses and one gun were blown into a mangled heap resembling a gigantic butcher's cart. A gunner was completely cut in two by a bar of steel, and four horses were wounded and fell dead a few yards off. Not a house in Dixmude escaped. The Hotel de Ville (Town Hall) was riddled with shells. The church was a blazing ruin. "The Germans made their final attack at dusk, when they hoped to cut their way to Dunkirk. The Belgian batteries were at last able to open a ter-« rible and sustained fire on the German infantry, who were trying to turn Dixmude from the south through the village of Saint Jacques Capelle. This village was the scene of a violent infantry combat. French reserves for a time were unable to reach Saint Jacques, as it was impossible to pass through the blazing ruins of Dixmude. The Germans charged with the bayonet, and the Belgians and French answered their cries of 'Ja Ja !' with cheers. The cries died away, the Germans retreated, and darkness fell, save for the red furnace of Dixmude and the small furnace of Saint Jacques." Mr. Gibbs describes the German prisoners, many of whom are woundsi, as famished and terror-stricken. "They look like hunted wild beasts." FURIOUS DAY AND NIGHT ATTACKS Other correspondents detail the naval fight, particularly the Trafalgar Day fight between Nieuporfc and Middelkerke. The Germans from Antwerp on Tuesday, reinforced by fresh corps from Brussels, made furious day and night attacks. The Germans renewed their efforts on Trafalgar Day, when the FrancoBritish squadron, in an action of twelve hours, shelled the German entrenchments three miles inland. Some guns discharged fourteen projectiles a minute. The fire of the squadron destroyed a German bridging train collected in order to force tho passage of the Yser. The correspondent, continuing the description of the naval operations, states that the artillery attempted to get the range of the battleships by aeroplanes, by_ dropping smokeballs, but this was ineffective. While tho fleet wag cannonading the German flank, the Allied infantry was attacking in front. The Germans were finally compelled to evacuate Nieuport. The Allies' scouts did magnificent work in picking up each of the enemy's defensive positions, enabling the fleet to keep pace with the German retirement. During 1 the retreat from Middelkerke something approaching a panic seized the German army. The officials at Ostend hurriedly prepared to evacuate the city, stores, ammunition, and reserve artillery were sent to Bruges. There was terrible confusion with the reception and treatment of the wounded. Meanwhile the British cavalry did dashing work in the Roulers-Ypres dis-~ trict. Berlin messages claim that after heavy fighting the Germans crossed the Yser/ * [The Yser flows into the sea half-way between Ostend and the French coast. Dixmude is in Belgium, about twenty miles east of Dunkirk, and Fumes is near the coast, about three mile 3 from Nieuporfc and twelve from Dunkirk.]