FIERCE FIGHTING

Evening Star, Issue 19043, 11 September 1925, Page 5

FIERCE FIGHTING

SITUATION IN BOROOCO THE SPANISH LAHDIHS ANZAC RESALLED Press Association—By Tclejfraph—-Copyright MADRID, September 9. Detailed accounts of the landing at Albuccmas Bay and tlio preliminary operations do not mention the repulse described in the French newspapers yesterday. On the contrary, they declare that everything worked with mathematical precision under efficient leadership. The sea was calm when 112 warships, including a number of hrench, arrived at noon on Monday. The warships immediately hjiakwded the mountains in tho hinterland, while titty Spanish aeroplanes, assisted French seaplanes, .bombed tho rebel positions. The enemy reply was ineffective. The wireless on one of tho warships was slightly damaged j otherwise no vessel was hit. Tho orders to land were issued at xi o’clock on Monday evening to General Saro’s calumn, consisting of ten tanks, two battalions of tho Foreign Legion, three of Spanish riflemen, three of natives, one field battery, two mountain batteries, an ammuniton column, four companies of sappers, and three wireless detachments. These troops were assembled by dawn without mishap on tho warships. Tho bombardment, naval and aerial, was reopened at 5 o’clock in the morning, and continued for four hours. Boats laden with tho troops started for tho shore at 10 o'clock, and the landing began at noon. Tho native Regulars, who wore tho first ashore, advanced immediately towards _ tho enemy positions. Tho enemy resisted, but were caught by tho fire of tho warships and withdrew rapidly. Tho objective was soon occupied, and tbo whole column established bivouacs at Morro Nuevo by sunset. During the course of the operation an aeroplane was hit by .shell lire, and sank- in tho bay. Tho crow were rescued. To-day (he landing column united with tho Molilla forces, and, continuing tho offensive, occupied Gihelchiban and Hcloszuwn. It is advancing on Ajdir. Aeroplanes bombed Sheshuan and Ajdir. Tlio Riffs are feebly resisting.—Reuter. TERRI FIG BOMBARDMENT. LANDING DESCRIBED. LONDON, September 10. Tho special correspondent of the ‘ Daily Express ’ on board a Spanish troopship off Albuccmas says: “The same boats which took the Anzacs ashore at Gallipoli landed the Spanish troops on the bleak Riff coast in two forces—one on either side of Alhucomas Bay. On A jdir, Abdel Krim’s capi- ! at, ions of high explosives wore poured all day from naval guns of every calibre. This so diminished tho Riffs’ resistance (hat the Spanish casualties were much smaller than was expected. Tho Moors who were left alivo on the shell-torn hillside neither asked nor gave quarter. Tho attackers took only twelve prisoners alive. The terrific naval bombardment gave the Moors no chance to remove thoir artillery, with the result that the Spaniards captured twenty-two largo guns. “ Behind and all around us was tho Spanish Armada reincarnated. Almost 100 ships—giant cruisers, fussy destroyers, big liners, tugs, and exBrit ish K boats—steamed towards tbo landing place. General Saro, from the flagship Victoria Eugenic, gave a signal which sent the whole line of K boats forward, tho men crouching in them behind iho slid (or of steel plates. It .seemed as if nothing could live on the steel-wracked hillside. Yet, as tho beetles chugged their way towards the bear!) they were received with the rattle of machine mins. “The gang planks were run out, and iho men poured ashore and spread out fan wise. Tho enemy responded with a continuous volume of rifle lire, but tho attackers climbed the 200yds to the first crest by noon, constructing redoubts with stones and sandbags as they moved forward. “Tho whole fleet cheered when tho Hag was run up on the cuest of Capo Moor.”—A. and N.Z. Cable. ABDEL KIHM’S STRATEGY. LONDON, September 9. The Madrid correspondent of tho * Daily .News ’ says that the strategy of the later Spanish landing at Capo Qu Rates failed to attract Abdel Krim’s attention from developing a fierce attack at Tetuan. it is now revealed that Krim purposely feebly resisted the disembarkation with a view to drawing the Spanish out of range of tho warships’ covering fire sixteen miles inland, where tho main lino of defence consists of a solid line of din and (Jin guns. Tho Spanish forces have halted before tho well-nigh impregnable heights of Ajdir, where 25,000 picked Riffs, well supplied with guns and ammunition, confidently await an onslaught.—Sydney ‘ Sunday ’ Cable. THE FRENCH ADVANCE. LONDON, September 10. The latest report from Morocco states that tho French artillery is blazing from Oiiczzane to the. banks of the Ouergha River. Tho roads are crowded witJi advancing battalions, and tho sky is filled with aeroplanes, some of which are being utilised to curry the wounded to tho rear.—A. and N.Z. Cable. SPANISH LINE BROKEN. ALLIES TO THE RESCUE. LONDON, September 10. Tlio Madrid correspondent of tho ‘ Daily Nows’ reports that tho Spanish lino has been broken at Laracho. Tho Spanish are in a desperate plight on the Tetuan River, and have appealed to Marshal Retain to commence an offensive to relievo tlio pressure and avert a debacle. A later message says that the French have launched an offensive on the whole Moroccan front.—Sydney ‘ Sun ’ Cable. STRONG FORCE ENGAGED. LONDON, September 10. (Received September 11, at 1.20 a.in.) Ono hundred and fifty thousand Franco-Spanish troops are now engaged, supported by the Sultan of Morocco’s Sherccfian air squadron, consisting of American volunteer pilots, who bombed Sheshuan sixteen times in two days. Two hundred and fifty Spanish were killed out of 1,000 engaged at Fondak.—Sydney ‘Sun’