THE ENEMY AT BAY.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume IV, Issue 241, 25 September 1914, Page 4

THE ENEMY AT BAY.

Dogged Resistance in the Aisne. Germans Fight Like Desperate Men. Great and Useless Sacrifice of Life. Slow Progress made by the Ailid. London, Sept. 2)(, 6.25 p.m. The High Commissioner reports:--RELlABLE.—Operations during the last three days along the. extended front favour the Allies. The enemy has sustained serious repulses. The enemy shows little activity in the Domevre-en-llaye district. Thev- have evacuated Nonicny (cast of Pant-ii-Mousson) and Arracourt (in the Vosges north of Lunevillc), but they hold the lines on the south side of the river Woevrc. [PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRUtHT. J (Received 25, 9 a.m.) Paris, Sept. 24. OFFICIAL. —The situation on the front is unchanged. Officers believe the Germans would have retreated before now, but for the condition of the roads rendering it impossible to transport heavy cannon. The Germans are fighting like desperate men, the officers sacrificing their, forces without reason, driving them again and again to the charge as if they were blind men. (Received 25, 12 noon.) A communique explains that the battle of the Aisne assumes on a large portion of the front the characteristics of a fortress war, analagous to the operations in Manchuria. The exceptional power of artillery on both sides imparts special value to temporary fortifications. It is therefore a matter of carrying successive entrenchments, all guarded by accessory defences, notably barbed wire entanglements ; therefore the advance can only be at the rate of from 500 metres to 1 kilometre daily. DEADLY SHELL FIRE. (Received 25, 9 a.m.) London, Sept. 24. For miles in the region of Nancy, German shells ploughed holes three feet in diameter, so close together that no human being could have escaped. 1 ENORMOUS GERMAN LOSSES. CAN THEY SURVIVE THE DEPLETION ? London, Sept., 23. Reuter’s Paris agent states that wounded from the battlefield state that the Germans have lost so enormously that they cannot resist much longer. When repulsed at Craonne on Sunday night, they abandoned over 1000 wounded; EARLIER OPERATIONS. TURNING THE CROWN PRINCE’S ARMY. . BATTLE THAT INFLUENCED THE GERMAN RETREAT. (Received 25, 9.50 a.m.) Paris, Sept. 24. Reports giving details of the harrying of the Crown Prince’s army state that the Chateau Mondement was shattered. The headquarters of the staff were taken and retaken four times. They were subjected to a tornado of shells and rifle fire. The Crown Prince’s Army Corps occupied the front at Fere Champenoise to a point eastward of Epernay, his advance troops being on the Sezanlie-Epernay road. The Turcos, notwithstanding a withering fire, struggled up to the German position. The Germans, fighting stubbornly, retreated, but no sooner were the French within the chateau than thev came under the German shell fire. The German infantry drew closer, anti with annihilating gun fire drove the blacks out. ' Thev re-formed in sheltered ground, began a counter charge, and with wild veils the Turcos re-took the chateau. On the next day, the enemy, in larger numbers, inept up under a superbly gauged gun fire. Gradually the French yielded, and the Germans again held the key of the battlefield. Then the whole store was repeated ; the I urcos dashed in under a murderous fire from the chateau ; supports from the line regiments followed, and the Germans retired. With this final break the centre of the enemy’s whole line wavered. The French pressed forward, and the’Germans stumbled through the swamps, abandoning 42 field pieces before order was restored by a subsequent withdrawal further eastward. (NOTE. —The light recorded above probably took place about the 6th of September. Fere Champenoise is about 20 miles south of Epernay, and the front stated in the message is most likelv the nearest point to Paris the Crown Prince reached in his advance to assist in the investment of the capital.) OPE RATIONS IN BELG IU M. GERMANS THINK IT TIME TO LEAVE. London, Sept. 23. Mr. Donohoe, with the Belgian army, telegraphs that the Germans stampeded out of Tennonde, Saingelles and Lvbbeke southwards, believing that an Anglo-French army had arrived. The mistake arose through the Belgians using French and * British field guns. The German staff was about to dine at Lcbbeke on Sunday, when an officer arrived with some fragments of shells. After a. hurried consultation the regiment was ordered to retreat. The. staff rode helter-skelter to Brussels.