SUPREME GERMAN EFFORT.

Evening Star, Issue 16050, 29 February 1916, Page 3

SUPREME GERMAN EFFORT.

HEAVY GUNS CONCENTRATED. FRENCH CENTRE GAVE. THEIR WINGS READJUSTED. London ‘Times’ and Sydney ‘Sun’ Services. ( LONDON, February 27. ‘ The Times’s ’ correspondent at Paris writes: “The thoughts of the whole of France are concentrated on Verdun with erjual anxiety to that manifested over the struggle on the Marne, but with less apprehension, all feeling that so much depends upon the Germans capturing Verdun that they are ‘ going nap ’ on the present offensive and neglecting nothing that is likely to secure success. “Accounts unanimously agree that even the tremendous artillery bombardment in the Champagne offensive was mere fireworks compared with the pitiless bombardment that is thundering on the Mouse. Tne famous 12in and 17in guns have been brought back bv the Germans from the Russian and Serbian fronts to swell the chorus, adding force to the tremendous artillery, which has transformed the whole region, twisting and. distorting the local geography, tearing, rending, and obliterating trenches and field fortifications. “Never was a battle so minutely prepared or an army so abundantly provided Avith material. The Allies 3 tremendous industrial mobilisation and Great Britain’s new armies have forced the German headquarters to realise the possibility of an allied general offensive at all fronts and they were therefore determined to forestall it and get a knockout blow iu before they are beaten by sheer exhaustion. “After five days’ fighting thev have succeeded, at tremendous cost, in'battering back the French lines for 2,000 yards but they have nob pierced anywhere! JJroadly speaking, the French centre gave way under the tremendous pressure, while the stable points at each end held firm but were withdrawn in order to consti! tute a straight front on hills I,oooft bmh supported in the rear at a distance °of two miles and a-half by the solid fieldworks of the Douaumont Fort. The Ger mans must fight hard if they ever reach the main defences.”