ON THE WESTERN FRONT.

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 2524, 21 December 1914, Page 3

ON THE WESTERN FRONT.

mi. 4i,. Pans ' December 19. vr-ii? i• i -, aavan(, ed troops passed Middlekirk during the evening ,and were driven out of a number of trenches on the right bank of tho rser, our forces having pierced the German line just at the end of the inundation of Dixmu.de. The Belgians were acquainted with the exact positions of the dykes and ditches, which wero hidden' by tho murky waters and wero previously death-traps for every advancing German force. They led their comrades through selected parts of the kneedeep water, and the Allies then cross, ed and charged with the bayonet. The Germans made a poor defence, many prisoners being taken. Their losses in the vicinity of Lombaertzyde were yery heavy.

Official.—We organised the ground gained on Thursday south of Dixmudo and pushed our front to south of Camplearat and Korteker. The advance south of Vpres continues over difficult marshy ground. Tho Allies progressed over a kilometre in two days south of La Bassee during the night of the 17th, and the following day advanced on Albert under a violent fire . We reached the wire entanglements of the enemy's second line of trenches. German hand grenades forced us to abandon a trench captured on Thursday north of Malicourt. Several German trenches were carried in the Lihors district, where three violent counter-attacks were ro pulsed. Our fire, directed by airmen, deniolished two heavy batteries on the heights of the Meuse, and damaged a third.

In order to occupy St. Georges, the Belgians 'and French crossed flooded country, sometimes waist deep in water. The engineers made pontoon bridges. Six lines of German trenches, 000 to 1000 yards apart were taken. On reaching St. Georges, the Allies discovered that their artillery had driven out the Germans. Thirty-eight wero refuging in a cellar and were made prisoners.

London, December 19. The Daily Mail's Dunkirk correspondent says that when advancing to the coast in the direction of Ostend, French dragoons attempted a turning movement near Nieuport. German' reinforcements, with hidden machineguns, checked them. The next night the dragoons galloped round the Germans' right wing. The Germans, in the dunes, wero enclosed on three sides and surrendered, 900 prisoners being taken