OPERATIONS IN FRANCE.

Greymouth Evening Star, 5 July 1915, Page 6

OPERATIONS IN FRANCE.

GERMAN ARTILLERY PREPARATIONS. Mni L E FIERCE FIGILTIN G. ROTTERDAM. July 3. The “Vonvaerts” has reappeared. The Germans are massing- big' guns not in 1 ("i but in hundreds in blunders planum g to concentrate their chief fin- 0:1 a selected point on the Allies left, he -To- that if successful hordes ii• f v will clash, through the breach. . i Thn ' are some new 15 mowers that do not need concrete emplacements . PARIS, July 3. Olfi.-hd,—The encniv in Argonne essayed a fresh general attack between ill.; 'Binarvillc road and Blenlenil. A o—keularlv desperate fight deve lojwd into a hand to hand struggle. AH our positions were maintained. A counter attack at Ifulgenfnrst today enabled ns to reconquer all the positions that the Germans took on Thursday night . PARTS, July .5. Three thousand shells have fallen in Arras during the* last few days. Several soldiers and civilians were killed. There were thirty fatalities at the Marseilles munitions factory, twenty seriously. ■ Some bodies were found a hundred yards away . 5N THE LABYRINTH. U N!) E! 1G R( )UNI) FIG lIT.INC. PARIS, July 3. A. French’ officer, describing the underground lighting in the labyrinth, states that the French and (humans fought for three weeks in narrow passages, lit sometimes by oillamps and used sandbags for defences When a breach' was made hand to hand struggles followed with the bayonet and grenades. The Germans sometimes used revol vers and knives and corrosive fluids but at times only fists . The French captured one tunnel 60 yards long, after thirteen days incessant- lighting, almost in complete 'darkness. The Germans were employing traps of all descrimions . Tim tunnels were eighten to thirty feet m der-mund, and water was constantly oozing - .