Allies In the West

Manawatu Times, Volume XL, Issue 13209, 28 September 1915, Page 5

Allies In the West

THE SMASHING BEGINS. BRITISH AND FRENCH ON THE OFFENSIVE. GERMANS SUFFER DISASTERS. PARIS, Sept. 26. Official: A terrific battle is raging in the Champagne. The French penetrated the German lines on a front of fifteen miles by a depth of two and a half miles at some points. They captured 12,000 Germans. Stubborn fighting continues. Official: We maintained throughout the night our eaptured positions at ■Carteul and the Souchez cemetery, -also in the last German trenches eastward of the Labyrinth. There is obstinate fighting along the entire Champagne front. Our artillery made a successful surprise attack against works in the Lamois region in Bau de Sapt. LONDON, Sept. 26. Official: The British renewed the -offensive and captured five miles of trenches sonth of La Bassee Canal. They penetrated 4000 yards in some instances, also 600 yards -of trenches -at Hooge. NEW YORK, Sept. 26. The Allies capture® 20,000 unwounded Germans. According to a French official communique the French stormed and captured Souchez. The Allies continue to make gains In the Champagne. ■ THE GREAT OFFENSIVE. TREMENDOUS LOSSES BY ENEMY. Received 9.15 p.m. LONDON, Sept. 26. Sir John French's despatch aaved "Sunday morning says:—"We attacK--ed the enemy Bouth of La Bassee Canal and east of Grenay-Vermilles -on Saturday morning, and captured bis trenches on a front of over five miles, penetrating his lines in some places 4000 yards. We captured the western outskirts of Hulluch, also the village of Loos, mining the works round it and Hill 70. Other attacks were mule pc.r'h of La Jfcissee Canal, which drew Ft r ong enemy reserves towards ti-tse points, where hard fighting occurred all day long with varying success. At nightfall our troops north of the Canal occupied the positions taken in the morning. We made another attack near Hooge on either side of Menin road. By the attack on the north road we occupied Belleward farm and ridge, but the enemy retook it. The attack on the south road gained us 600 yards. We have -consolidated the ground won? Up to the present we have taken 1700 prisoners. eight guns and several machine guns. The report in Friday's German communique tnat our attempted attack on Thursday south of La Bassee Canal failed was untrue, as there was no attack attempted. THE AIRMEN'S WORK. AMSTERDAM. Sept. 26. The Allied airmen made a raid on Ghent and endeavoured to bomb the Phoenix ammunition factory. They damaged some houses and destroyed the new school of the German airmen. and also brought down two enemy aeroplanes at Elzach. their pilots being killed. BERLIN ADMITS REPULSES AND LOSSES. NEW YORK. Sept. 26. Berlin advices state that the Germans admit repulses north west of Loos, also north of Perthes with heavy ] losses. THE ENEMY IN RETREAT. ROTTERDAM. Sept. 26. There have been persistent reports from various points on the ®elgo-Dut'-h frontier that the Anglo-French have achieved great successes and are steadily pushing forward. Movements behind the enemy's lines point to something in the nature of a re-tre-it The German losses by the Allies'' prolonged artillery fire are mounting enormously, while their infantry losses in the last 24 hours were terrible Every available man m Belgium was flung into the defend and the newly arrived troops were rushed to the firing line without a moment s rf . s t. the villages and frontier posts being denuded of guards. On Saturday the battle raged over a wide area, and all arms were eng:,KPfl in simultaneous fighting on land :-n'l sea. and in the air. 1 and 10 in the morning a British squadron bombarded van

■ous ports on the Belgian coast, including the enemy trenches at Westende and their line above Nieuport, the French heavy batteries ashore also sweeping the line. The British ships shelled, the positions at Heyst, Duinbergen and Knocke, as well as the coastal batteries and the sand dunes from the Dutch frontier to Westende. Misty rain hid thj ships' approach, and the first notice of their presence was shells bursting ashore. In intensity and duration all previous bombardments were surpassed. Many shells fell inland between Zeebrugge and Lawsaweghe, and seven columns of black smoke were towering ia the air. The bombardment of Zeebrugge harbour was particularly severe and foiled the submarines' attempts to steal out. The Allies' airmen in cover of the mist successfully bombed the German positions and the German aeroplanes were driven back to their own lines. THE TREMENDOUS GUNFIRE. The Telegraaf describes the gunfire as tremendous, and following it there was a fearful bringing back of wounded. Soon all available buildings in | Roulers and Cortemarch were filled with the injured. Large numbers of dead were buried in the numerous villages behind the German lines. BRITISH HOLD GROUND. Received 10.25 p.m. LONDON, Sept. 27. Sir John French reports: There was severe fighting on Sunday and determined enemy counter-attacks. We hold the ground gained including the whole of Loos. Our aeroplanes bombed and derailed trains at Douai and as a result the latter is full of troop?. FRENCH SUCCESSES. FIRST TRENCH FIGHTING FOR MONTHS. GIVING THEM THE BAYONET. PARIS, Sept. 27. A communique says: We occupied by main force the whole village of Souchez and advanced eastward in the direction of Givenchy. Further south we reached Lafolie and pushed north to Thelus prisonering 1000 after crossing almost the whole front. Between Anherive and VUlesurtourbe in the Champagne where a powerful network of trenches and forts had been established and perfected, by the enemy during many months we advanced northward,'compelling the Germans to fall back between three and four kilometres. Fighting continues on the whole front. We reached Epine de Ville Grande further east and hold Maisonde. a Champagne farm. The enemy suffered heavily from artillery and in hand to hand fighting. 20,000 PRISONERS. The material captured includes 24 field guns, 16,000 unwounded prisoners and 200 officers. The prisoners during the two days' exceed 20,000.

FRENCH FIGHT LIKE DEMONS. After a spasm of (iring the guns quietened and the bayont got to work in the German treches, the first time for months. The Freuch used picked troops who fought like demons and turned the eGrmans out in spite uf Von Falbech's furious resistance. The enemy threw hundreds of sutiiocating shells and aerial torpedoes. BRITISH CRUMPLING I'RLVE RUPPRECHT 'S F( )RCES. The British attack against Prince Rupprecht's for'.ea is proceeding to the left of Lens-Lahasse main road and is directed towards the north of Lens. An army service driver states that the British artillery crumpled the enemy's front but when the British reached them the Germans advanced from the communication trenches and there were sanguinary hand to hand lights in the new trenches. The bayonet did excellent work. The British gained a footing in many sections on the enemy front. Prince Rupprecht's troops fought well. Many Bavarians were taken prisoner. " ' • THINGS ARE'GOTNG WELL.'' LONDON, Sept. 26. The Daily Telegraph's Paris correspondent says he is impressed with the calm with which the City received the news of the success. Large crowds walking in the Boulevards read the communique and the general comment was "Things are going well." THE TEUTONIC VERSION. AMSTERDAM, Sept. 27. A German communique says: The Anglo-French offensive prepared for months progressed without bringing thp assailants appreciably nearer. The

British warships attempted without success to harrass us. The enemy in Ypres sector suffered heavy losses and did not achieve success. The enemy southwest of Lille succeeded in repulsing one of our divisions near Loos from an advanced line. Naturally we had considerable losses in men and material of all kinds. Our counterattacks are progressing favourably. We voluntarily evacuted the ruins of Souchez and easily repulsed numerous other attacks with heavy enemy losses. A German division between Rheims and the Argonne, north of Perthes was obliged to evacuate its advanced positions which had been ruined by seventy hours' uninterrupted bombardment, retiring three kilometres; otherwise all enemy attacks to break through failed. CONFIDENT CALMNESS. PARIS, Sept. 27. Though the last communique proved inspiring neither the press nor the public displayed a tendency to excess of jubilation. They accept the news with cheerfulness and equanimity and are convinced that victory will be theirs however long or hard the road. HOW BRITISH HELPED FRENCH. I 11 LONDON, Sept. 27. Sir John French's report adds: On Sunday night we retook the quarries northwest of Hullack which we won and lost on Saturday. In this fighting we have drawn on the enemy's reserves, thus enabling the French on our right to make further progress. The number of prisoners after yesterday 's fighting was 2600, and nine guns and a considerable number of machine guns were captured. Our aeroplanes bombed Valenciennes station.