FRANCE

Manawatu Times, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 12910, 6 October 1914, Page 5

FRANCE

A SATISFACTORY EXPORT. PARIS, Oct. 3. Official. —After repulsing all attacks on the left we resumed the offensive at several points. The positions at other points were maintained. We have thrown back the enemy at Ar- ; gonne towards the northward and are i slowly progressing in the southern at , Woevre. There are no developments ; in Lorraine, the Vosges, or the centre. THE MAN BEHIND THE GUN. The Times' Paris correspondent declares that every Englishman holds instinctive faith that more important than the gun is the ma a behind it. Among many lessons taught by the battle of the Aisne none is greater than that the machine, no matter how powerful, is insecure against man's < two hands. Every battle in the last , issue is to be won by the bayonet. ] The British soldiers have put the doc- i trine of the machine to great shame, j They made charges which were impossible by the rules of the game, and wrested victory from the very teeth of defeat. i THE BAYONET CHARGES. Y' ' \ A soldier describing the bayonet charges after the artillery duel says: —"With nerves ajingle and tempers on edge the men rush at the foe with cold steel, and at last it is man to man; Suddenly the sound of loud continuous laughter is heard from the soldiers who have passed the borders of ' restraint. It is no longer dull courage 1 but a blaze of anger that sleeps along < the ranks like fire, striking terror by i its very' native ferocity. Machines ] have no reply to such zeal of pas- 1 si op".'' v i. < '. • < THE TURPENTINE SHELLS. < Received 11.50 p.m. LONDON, Oct. 5. The Times' correspondent in France has received trustworthy confirmation of the deadly effects of turpentine shells. The statement is iv t. confirmed . officially. j - - I THE GERMAN RETREAT. PARiS, Oct. 5. When the Germans retired along the Rheims line they abandoned many motor lorries, apparently through shortage of petrol. The framework of twelve was found burned, apparently destroyed in the hurried retreat. The German demoralisation has now become undeniable. Prisoners state that the trenches were too deep and removal of the dead was impracticable, the result being horribly insanitary. THE BROKEN GERMAN ARMY. PARIS, Oct. 5. Latest advices indicate that if the French left continues unchecked it will be unnecessary to take the German entrenchments north of the Aisne by assault. The Bavarians were so severely defeated at Roye that they were demoralised if not actually decimated. MM. Poincare, Rivani and Stiller and have gone to the front to congratulate the troops. ______ I BATTLE IN PROGRESS. PARIS,"oTt. 4, Midnight, i Official.—On the left the battle is in full progress but a result has not been reached. The fighting is les® violent. [ We made progress at Soissons where i the enemy's trenches were eaptured and also progressed at Woevre.

THE BATTLE OF ROYE. PABLS, Oct. 4. At the battle of Roye a body of French Dragoons occupying a village retired, drawing the enemy to a wood where there were batteries with infantry and the shell fire decimated the Germans who fled, leaving eight hundred prisoners, including a colonel and ten officers. A BRUTAL ORDER. The Gaulois states that the Crown Prince, before evacuating, ordered Clermonte. in the Argonne, to be burned and even the old men's alms' houses maintained by the Little Sisters of the Poor were burned though the Mother Superior on her knees implored that they be spared.