A FORMIDABLE LINE.

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 2888, 7 March 1916, Page 2

A FORMIDABLE LINE.

WHERE THE GERMANS ARE HELD UP.

(Received March 7. 11 a.m.) Paris, March 6. Tbo Petit Parisien nays the Germans arc held up on a formidable lino consisting of three hues oi works covering Verdun. The whole of our positions form practically a rectangle about, 7 kilometres across. 'J ho German-, at the beginning of the week attempted to drive in our centre at Bois d'llaiidreinoiif and Boudomont. On Eriday they believed we had stripped our wings to reinforce tho centre and attempted a vioJcut attack ou Yoiidedantualoup. Their troops were caught by a raking lire from guns-of all calibres, and left piles of dead. Our curtain of fire prevented reinforcements coming up. The German high command ordered them forward nevertheless, and regiment after regiment was sent to death. Some regiments lost 40 and others 60 per cent, of their effectives before reaching our entanglements, whore thereinnanas wero mown down by machine gun and file fire. The Germans did not succeed in gaining a foot of ground, and the French right wing hold linn. The enemy- resumed attach* on tho centre. M. Marcel lliitin. writing in the Echo do Paris, says the enemy's efforts at Verdun are weakening, and they will probably attempt a further advance, after a reorganisation of the positions between TaleuhiJl and 'Douaumont fort. One thing is clear, wo hold, him in check. VALUE OF VERDUN. SITUATION GOOD, SAYS Mil AND. London, March 1. - The Paris press is buoyant. Although slow and steady advances of the Germans ivere - somewhat disquieting to the public, until Monday Genernf Joffre withheld the news, except communiques, trusting the people's .splendid stoicism. The Paris Figaro claims that the battle till now has been a frightful hecatomb for the Germans, and the finest French manoeuvre of the war. M. Ilousset, writing in Le Petit Parisien, says that it would bo useless hiding the fact that tho fall of Verdun would be a masterly move for tho Kaiser. CRIES OF AGONY. EXPLOSION OF A MINE. London, March; 1." The Paris Journal describes the but-, chery of the Germans iv the Caures' Wood above Beaumont. The engineers heavily mined a large section of ground, and tho French troops withdrew. The Germans rushed fonvard, ■and the contact handle was pressed. A heavy explosion followed. Trees and debris wero flung high into tho air, and the savage yells of conquest issuing from the Germans became terrible cries of agony and pain that gradually dulled into silence. - The Paris press claims that tJio ex-" plosion destroyed a whole German division.