THE OPENING SHOTS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXIX, Issue LXIX, 26 May 1915, Page 5

THE OPENING SHOTS.

COASTAL TOWNS BOMBARDED. BETTER RUSSIAN REPORTS. FAILURE OF GERMAN .LANS ALLECED. BRITISH PROGRESS IN NORTH FRANCE.

BT CABEB—SBESB ASSQCKTIOIf—COPTEIGHT,

FRANCE AND BELGIUM.

MORE GAS. USED

BRITISH PROGRESS AT LA * BASSEE.

RECENT FIGHTS DESCRIBED

DEVASTATION AT YPRES

A GRUESOME ACCOUNT.

HUMAN FACTOR IN WAR STILL

IMPORTANT

ALLIES' SUPERIOR TO ENEMY IN

THIS

LONDON, May 25

Sir John French reports that our guns on the 24th silenced three German batteries. One was destroyed hy •direct hits and the ammunition was blown up. The Germans developed a Slight infantry attack east of Ypres, cinder cover of poisonous gas, and we "were forced to evacuate our trenches. Fighting continues, and we have already retaken some trenches.

PARIS, May 25

Official. — The British progressed "Storth of La Bassee. The Germans, in very heavy forces, attempted to attack north of.Neuville, but were caught under our artillery, and the attack was ■■stopped dead, the enemy sustaining heavy losses.

Extraordinary ' details are heard of the taking of Carency, which wis captured house by house. In one^case "thirty-two Frenchmen found twenty •Germans with fixed bayonets in a cellar which already contained piles of Ce>--anan dead. A death struggle commenced, all fighting like fiends. Sometimes Prussians pretended to be dead *md then drew a knife and attacked ;and stabbed a Frenchman. A Prussian officer appeared to go mad. He threw -down his revolver, tore off his tunic, and lashed out with it. After forty minutes not a German was alive. Most of the French were wounded, but;, twenty-eight were alive.

LONDON, May 25

In a letter a British officer describes "the battle at Rechebourg between the mh and the 17th. The Sussex, Northamptons, Munsters, and the Black Watch opened the attack, but met a lieavy rifle fire totally unexpected. After the bombardment, which equalled that of Neuve Chapelle, the Munsters and the Black Watch seized the trenches, but shortly afterwards they ■were driven out. Reserves were called lip on the 9th for a fresh attack, including the Worcesters, Inniskilling Fusiliers, the King's Royal Rifles, and a Tiiverpool regiment.

By ten o'clock in the evening four lines of men were lying in the open in front of the breastwork, with others in the trenches behind. The attackers rose •at 11.30 in pitch darkness and went for■ward at a walk. They had hardly when a flare came from the Ger"raan trenches. The men continued walking. Soon there were other flares, and then a hail of lead.

The men dashed ahead. The King's "Rifles and the Liverpools soon won a trench and went on to a second, but the Worcesters found the task impossible. The Inniskillings pushed on line ■■after line despite terrible losses, and "won the first trench and immediately -made for the second, which was captured. The three successful regiments joined up at dawn, and many heroes in the British trenches during the day boxes of bombs, bandoliers -.and ammunition, and attempted to •dash three hundred yards to a German trench. Many fell, but some got All the trenches were subjected to a terrific bombardment, in which the ■wounded suffered terribly. It was impossible to move them until dark.

The Oxf ordshires and Highland Light Infantry pushed on on Monday, and j "won more ground. The advance continues. A Times' correspondent at the British headquarters gives a gruesome description of the devastation of the

Ypres zone, which was riddled, and has only left roofless houses, broken furniture, a deathy stillness in the streets, and human remains everywhere. A sickening smell of deca;. overpowers the scent of spring flowers; jackdaws are cawing amid the ruins and starlings are rebuilding their nests in the altar of St. Martin's Church, which is still draped in black, for the bombardment interrupted a mass for the dead. The sacristy is full of vestments and candlesticks, tumbled together, and covered with a yellow dust from the explosives. The graveyard is a shell-crater from which human bodies protrude.

The correspondent says this is a most highly organised mechanical war, depending on modern science, and, as a last resort/ there is the human factor in the fighting man. * Despite artificial aid, the armies are depending on the same qualities which gave victory in the days of the bow and arrow. He believes that in the human factor we are superior to the enemy. He gives an example of a British private *asleep in a cellar when Ypres was vacated in November. He awoke and placed eleven townsmen under iron discipline, and shot looters on sight. Though himself inclined to the bottle, he prevented drunkenness amongst others. He was known as the king of Ypres, and his kingship lasted for a week". He was court-martialled, but for maintaining, orderliness he was forgiven other delinquencies.