FRANCE AND BELGIUM.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXII, Issue LXXII, 9 October 1916, Page 5

FRANCE AND BELGIUM.

'.ALLIED LINES FURTHER ADVANCED. v

.LE SARS CAPTURED

DEDUCTION OF ALLIED

CASUALTY RATE!

-USEFUL LESSONS TAUGHT BY

EXPERIENCE

LONDON, Oct. 7. 'General Sir Douglas Haig states that Jieavy shelling continues in most parts /from southwards of the Ancre. Our artillery successfully dealt with enemy working parties. General Sir Douglas Haig reports: Co-operating with the French; we attacked from the Albert-Bapaume road •to Les Boeufs. Our line, between -Gueudecourt and • Les Boeufs has advaaced ,from 600 to 1000 yards. We captured Le Sars, and progressed eastward and. westward thereof. The combined aircraft greatly assisted PARIS, Oct. 7. A communique states: The night >was calm. Bombs were dropped on Beliort, but the damage was insignificant. A strenuous artillery struggle continues ■'on v both banks of the

Somme. There has been no infantry ' action except a 'slight advance eastward of Bouchavesiies. < Our heavy artillery at Woevre effectively: shelled the military roads and railway stations. (Reuter Service.) PARIS, Oct. 8. A communique states: North of the Somrae our infantry,, in } conjunction with the British, attacked from the fr6nt of Morval and Bouchavesnes. .and carried the line forward twelve hundred metres north-east of Morval. The new French line crowns the west- • crn slopes of Sailley and Saillise ridge, ■.the whole of the Bapaume road to two hundred metres from Sailley, thence the hill 130 metres- to the south "of Bouchavesnes. A great .gathering of the enemy itroops north of Saillise was caught in ;ihe; concentration fire of our batteries. "Violent artillery- duels continue south • of the Sonvme' and on the. right of .the Meuse! ' . / . /;';."'. ■■ •,.-'. ■..'.- .

LONDON, Oct. 7. The Press Bureauj from, an aHitihori"tative source, explains the compara"tively small casualties .in the recent .•'Somiiie fighting. Experience has taught 'Britishers to advance under the fire /■of their. artillery without rushing so fast a.s.to dash into their own .barrage, f<pr bo cautiously as to lose their momftntum either in attack ..or advance. This knowledge is due t6 the constant sind generous exchange of ideals and 'discoveries, between the BritisH and Trench armies, 'all experiences being immediately pooled. , '

After Martinpuich was taken the uni'biiried Germans far outnumbered the ißritish, belying, everything thai exiperience had told-about the relative »expensiveness of attack ' defence, •while for every three British casualties -at Thiepval of all kinds we took two German prisoners. The simultaneous red'iction of the casualty rate in both -the British and French armies proves •.the.'value of the Allied research work.