THE WAR

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 2499, 9 November 1914, Page 4

THE WAR

FiGHTIHG.

THE OFFICIAL RECORD

; WORK OF THE BRITISH PORCES. j FRENCH AND BELGIANS DO j GREAT WORK. • Wellington, November 7. Ihe official account communicated by an eye-witness with the General Headquarters Staff continues the narrative ot tne movements of the British, force and the French armies in , immediate touch: ; . lii spue of the groat losses suffered m the attacks last week, tho Germans continued the offensive towards almost continuously during the five days from October 2b' to 30. Opposite us, it has gradually grown in intensity ana extent of application 3 and as men aud guns have been brought up and pushed into the tight it has developed into the most bitterly contested battle that has been fought in the western theatre. Tho German artillery has been increased by that transferred from Autwerp. As regards mlantry.- it is possible that some additional troops were rendered avail- . able by the relaxation of pressure on the Allies north of Ypres caused by : the desperate and successful resistance ' made at the latter and by the harassing nature of the artillery fire .• brought to bear by pur ships against tne strip of country along the coast j and the flooding in tlio area of the I Yser. Forces had been massed also Trom 1 the south, whilst another new army cor ps definitely made its debut, j though attempts to hack a way through were made in other direc- : tions, its had been seriously concen- : trated upon the neighbourhood of ; Ypres. On the 26th, south of Lys, on our right, the onemy attackod , JNeuye Chapelle, held by us; in the evening. Advancing under cover of a wood, they managed to gain possession of a portion north of Lys in J th© centre, and bombardment alone kept us tho ground made by us. A detached post which was attacked in force during the night drove back the assailants, -who left 56 dead behind. A ear our left the Germans developed very strong attacks on the region of our line east of Ypres. Though supported by great masses of artillery. this was checked. It had two results: One, our position was readjusted; and the other, our extreme left alone'advanced in conjunction with the.others of our Allies. On Tuesday, the Germans rather iocussed their attention on our right and centre. On the right, the most J desperate fighting took place for possession of Nenve Chapelle, and, in spite of repeated counter-attacks by ™» British, the enemy managed to hold the northern part of the village, which they 'gained'the day before. Towards evening we regained the greater part by step-hy-step fighting, but when fresh hostile reinforcements were brought up the entire village was captured by the enemy. They made several assaults against our whole front south of Lys, but, with ■ the exception of their sucoess at Neuve Chapelle they won no advantage. The combaWor the place was of _ a most murderous description, while it is believed that the enemy's losses in this quarter of the field were very great. An artillery officer observing their advance reports that the effects of our rifle and gun fire were stupendous. The Germans had thrown corpses .of their own men out of the trenches to obtain cover. Four successive attacks were made, each by a different regiment, and in this way the whole of. one division was engaged piecemeal about the same locality. At last, these regiments were practically disposed I of. According to prisoners,' their con- • dition is deplorable. North of the : river our centre was subjected to heavy shell fire, but our guns were by no means idle. One of our patrols found eleven Germans dead and one rendered unconscious by fumes in a farm in. which our lyddite shells detonated.

Towards our leftj the readjustment or the line commenced on Monday, and the complete redistribution of our strength was effected. On our extreme left, ground was gained at rseuye Chapelle, against desperato fighting. Our Indian troops greatly distinguished themselves, and by well conducted counter-attack's they drove the Germans out of the place with the bayonet. Emerging from the village, however, they were exposed to a concentrated fire from machine

guns, and had to remain contented with what they gained. Further on the left the enemy made counter attacks under cover of the usual heavy bombardment, but each effort was repulsed with great slaughter. One of our trenches was carried., and then recovered, after 200 killed had been mnicted on the enemy. Un the extreme left, our advance ; was_ not pressed. The enemy reinain!ed in position at Becel Air. A night i attack by them was repulsed. Next the centre's pressure were our two flanks south of Lys. Against the right, the Germans delivered an assault which failed, aud in front of one battalion it was estimated that they left between 600 and 700 at tho trench they penetrated, which was i recaptured by us. They lost 70 killed and 14 prisoners. A few Germans surj rendered voluntarily in this quarter. , We experienced for the first tiino in the northern theatre of action a "minewerfa," or French mortar. It has a range of some 500 yards, and throws a bomb loaded with a high explosive weighing 2001b5... being fired at an extreme elevation from a bomb pit m a trench. At mdnight our line was attacked in two places. One did not mature, as the ground was well swept by our guns. In tho other case, the assault was carried against one of our brigades by a force of some twelve battalions. With great self-restraint, our men held their lire .for 40 minutes until tho attackers got quite close to them, and then drove them hack with a loss of 200 killed. The enemy penetrated portions of one of our trenches, but were driven out again, losing 800 men killed or captured.