ATTACK ON YPRES

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27, 2 February 1915, Page 7

ATTACK ON YPRES

HEAVILY REPULSED BY FRENCH. PRINCESS PATRICIA'S OWN SURPRISE THE ENEMY. DUNKIRK, Ist February. The French expected a German attack on Ypres on Monday, and concentrated their machine guns, the fire frOm whichcut down the first three lines of the attackers, the 75-millimetre guns meanwhile showering shells on the thick masses of reserves. The Germans left 1600 dead on the field. Germans of the Landsturm attacked the Princess Patricia's Canadian Regiment on 25th January, but> had such a sharp reception that they fell on their stomachs in the mud and crawled to safety. [The course taken by the German operations round Ypres, ending in bombardment (says an English exchange), has been such as to suggest that the destruction of the place is really the outcome of disappointment and exasperation at its resistance and at the failure of the much-adverfcised plans for its capture. The shelling of the town itself only began in earnest on the night of sth November, and that it escaped so long was apparently due tq the fact that up to that date the Germans counted on capturing the town and did not wish to cause damage. The last attack in force was delivered on 17th November. Four days later the Germans commenced to pour a stream of shell into the central market square, and whereas the clothhall and cathedral had both escaped material damage up till then, these two historic buildings were blazing fiercely by 3 p.m. It is stated that in order to do this the Germans brought a train armed with heavy guns, which were used under the direction of a captive balloon. The bombardment continued until the evening of 23rd November. In case there should be any doubts as to the justice of the indictment that the. Germans wantonly destroyed the place, it must be stated that as soon as the cloth-hall and cathedral had been obviously demolished fire was no longer directed on those buildings. In the words of a French communique, which will also be the verdict of history, "This magnificent old city v^as condemned to death on the day when the Emperor was forced to renounce the hope of making an entry into it."]