FRANCE AND BELGIUM.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXIX, Issue LXIX, 29 September 1915, Page 5

FRANCE AND BELGIUM.

THE GFMCIAL STATEMENTS.

BT CABLH—PRIBB ASSOCIATION—OOP7BIGBT

STRUGGLE STILL IN PROGRESS.

ENEMY CLAIMS TO HAVE HEL©

UP ALLIES' OFFENSIVE

FACTS ABOUT THE FIGHTING

A GREAT HAUL OF PRISONERS

-GERMANS SORELY TRIED ALOJS© WHOLE LINE.

MANY WELCOME A CHANCE T0

SURRENDER

PARIS, Sept. 28

A communique says that the enemy made only tie feeble&t effort against our new position at Artois. The strug:gle in the Champagne continues w'ith•out intermission before the Germans' •second line. The Allies' captures exceed seventy guns, of which the British ■took 23. The German offensive in the Argonne was stopped four times, Tvith heavy enemy loss.

LONDON, Sept. 28

Sir John French reports: —We have repulsed a number of counter-attacks, Inflicting heavy enemy losses. Our offensive is progressing eastward of Loos. Our captures are 53 officers, ÜBOO men, 18 guns, and 32 machine guns. The enemy abandoned considerable material.

AMSTERDAM, Sept. 28

A German communique states: Warships continue to fire isolated snobs nt 'the environs of Middlekirke. The 'Allies' have not renewed their attacks south-west of Lille, where our counterattacks arrested a great offensive. -Seveie isolated attacks north and 6outii of Loos collapsed with English losses. Attacks on both sides of Arras were bloodily repulsed. We captured 25 officers, 2600 men, and 14 machine guns. The French offensive at Rheims and in the Argonne has not progressed. It w-as especially severe on the road between Sommepy arid Suipes, and also north of Beausejour Farm, where they failed with very' heavy losses. $Ye captured 40 officers and"39o men. W re shot down three- aeroplanes, including a great French battle aeroplane, in aerial battles north-east of Ypres and south-south-'-'flrest of Lille. Two French aeroplanes were brought down in the Champagne district.

PARIS, .Sept. 28

A stream of facts regarding the fight are coming in. It is estimated that; there are 1,800,000 Germans on thei West, and ■ 2,800,000 on the Russian •front. i The unwounded Gferman prisoners •now exceel 23,000. Elev?n trams lull cf .prisoners passed through I'rmget station to Paris, going to the internment camps. The haul of prisoners is unparalleled -since the fiattle if the Marne.

A noteworthy feature of vhe c;iorations has been the aeroplane, attacks over fftrty miles in the 'ear .f the G(t-

man front, interfering with the n tve-

ment of the reserve supply <of iumnuni- . tion and bombing troop trains. The effect of these attacks can be .estimated

from the results at Saarbruc, where aeroplanes destroyed the greater part

of the strategic railways. Aeroplanes ;also damaged the junction at Treves, whereby hundreds of thousands of 'troops have passed from Luxembourg

towards France

The people at Treves were seized with mad panic. As the Bishop was being •consecrated in the cathedral the clergy #nd congregation took refuge m the .crypt until the hurricane of fire ceased. It is manifest that the prime objective of the Allies' attack*1 is the railway communications at Lens and La Bassee, they being the nucleus of the network of railways to Li'jJe, and of vital securitj' tc tiiat all important, centre.

Hill 70 dominates Lens, in addition to a large tract cf country eastward, resembling East Lancashire, and covered with an intricate system oi mm

ing railways.

PARTS.. Sopt. 23. The attack in the Champagne district

cccuiTod in a raging rainstorr:

whk-h

der."

makes the dash of the French infantry, that carried them up to tho enemy's gun positions before they had tii.;e to moi-fi them, all the more ro;iturk:iMe. .■The advance was so quick that more "than one German pivot point was lef J.. behind, and had subsequently to he en];-

tured by a minor siege. In Tthese iorti£pd farms and eandbag ifoKtaesses, which wese cut off, the Germans held cat- for some 'time.

The hardest fighting was -near Aube»ive. The Germans in the -Champagne district were peculiarly dependent on the crossline railway between Argonne and Bezancourt, uniting the Bethel and Vouziers lines, along which they were alone able to bring ,up large and ■rapid supplies of reinforcements. The French at Auberive mene within three miles of the line.

The latter also maintains the Germans' connection with the hills northwards of Jlheims. Judging from the number of prisoners, the (German killed and wounded may he (estimated as equalling in bulk an army corps.

It is difficult ior the Germans to bring the requisite reinforcements, which can scarcely be spared from other parts, inasmuch .as along the whole of the long line they are sorely tried.

This dependence -of one region upon another was illustrated on the same "front last March, when the French attack at Mesnil ;and ißeausejour compelled -the Germans to transfer troops from the British sfront, contributing to the British advance at Neuve Chapelle.

An officer .who was wounded in Flanders, says the struggle began in real earnest on Friday. "We had had 'our usual dose < of ; heavy shell all day long, and early on Saturday the fight began. Under -a hurricane of shrapnel the infantry .advanced in short, sham rushes to the German trenches, distant about 400 yards. 'Our fellows went at iit in rare spirit, and there was some pretty business with the bayonet. Many uho were taken prisoners were ready with the >cr.y of 'Camarade' and promptly threw down their rifles in the eagerness to get captured, The most surprising thing of the whole business was that many of them were old men of the Landstrum and Landwehr, but there was plenty of young blood. They seemed crushed and exhausted, and welcomed 'the 'chance "to surren-

AMSTERDAM, Sept. 28

Berlin newsp.-ipers warn the public against exaggerating the German check.

The Eoelnische Zeittmgis'of opinion' that the advances on Lille and Perthes are not surprising, in view of the terrible bombardment which levelled the German • defences.

The Yolks Zeitung declares that the success is not proportionate *to the losses the-enemy sustained.