WESTERN CAMPAIGN.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVI, Issue 16808, 18 March 1915, Page 7

WESTERN CAMPAIGN.

PROGRESS AT SQUAIN.

GERMAN DEFENCES MINED.

By T»l«gTa.ph—Pr»ss Association—Copyright

PARIS, March 16. The following communique has been issued:—-

We made further progress northeast, of Sduain.

Our mines shattered tho sit© of a German defence at Bois Le Pretre.

BRITISH OPERATIONS.

DESCRIBED BY SIR JOHN FRENCH.

LONDON, March 10

Sir John French's bulletin, describing the capture of L'Epinette, says that that success was the result of a brilliantly executed enterprise, advancing our line threo hundred yards on a front of eight hundred yards.

The enemy, on the evening of March 14, after a heavy bombardment and mine explosion, rushed some- of our trenches to the south of St Eloi. e recaptured them next morning. Our flying corps has secured further successes, a train at Don station beiu&

SMARTING UNDER DEFEAT.

GERMANS VIOLENTLY ATTACK BRITISH. THE FIGHTING AT ST ELOI. PARIS, March 16. The Germans, smarting at xr ; nce Ruprecht's defeat at Neuve Cbapelle, violently bombarded Ypres and St Eloi on Sunday.

The Wurtemburgers, strongly reinforced from Liege and Ghent, advanced on St Eloi in dense masses at nightfall, and threatened to envelop the British, who yielded grouad under heavy fire, but were reinforced duting tho night, and retook tho village and most of the outside trenches >n Mondav morning.

GERMAN LOSSES AT NEUVE CHAPELLE SIR JOHN FRENCH'S ESTIMATE. (Received March 17, 8.10 p.m.) LONDON, March 17. Sir John French's bulletin says that judging by the number of dead counted tho German losses from March 10 to March 13 at Neuve Chapelle cannot have been loss than seventeen or eighteen thousand.

GERMAN ATTACKS. REPULSED AT ALL POINTS. (Received March *T>, 10.15 p.m.) PARIS. March 17. German night attacks at Notre Dame De Lorotte aiid Vauquois were repulsed. Three attacks at the Bois fe Tictre wer« rennlsed,

BLOODY AND DETERMINED, THE FIGHT AT ST ELOI. TERRIBLE SLAUGHTER. (Received March 17. 10.15 p.m.) ROTTERDAM, March 17. Huge batches of Gorman wounded are arriving at Ostend, Bruges and Roulers. They state that the fight at St Eloi was bloody and determined. Every fort, every corner,, was a death trap. Inc dead" were piled so high in the streets that thev served' as barricades for t-iie living The Britis hfought stubbornly against heavy odds, and were well supported by artillery placed on a low bill. The Germans were mowed down, but tho British were driven back to small canals by sheer weight of numbers. The Geiinan triumph was shortlived British reinforcements were hurried up and flung the Germans from the village, which- was carried by the bayonet. The slaughter was terribleThe, Germans replied by summoning more troops billeted in surrounding villages, and fighting ragea' on St liloi Hill for two days.

BELGIANS CROSS THE YSER.

GERMANS DRIVEN OUT OF TRENCHES. (Received March 18, 12.15 a.m.) LONDON, March 17

V "Da-ilv Chronicle'' correspondent at Calais states that the Belgians crossed tho Yser between Dixmude and St Georges after determined pathbuilding for months across the floods and under fire. ."When the work was completed artillery forced the Germans to evacuate five miles of trenches and the Belgians occupied them.