THE ASSAULT AT LA BASSEE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVIII, Issue XLVIII, 22 June 1915, Page 5

THE ASSAULT AT LA BASSEE

LONDON, June 21. A British officer, in a letter describing -the assault at La Bassee, says the artillery poured a tempest of shells into the Gienchy brickfield. "You would see a high explosive shell crash into "a square fort like a block of brick baked solid, and -watch a great cloud of smoke roll away. Yon would expect to see the brickstack* shattered, but would find it hardly dented. • Nevertheless your experience tells you. -that the defenders are .suffering -from fragments of shell and showers of broken bricks, which are their bodies and shattering t their nerves. rf *The bombai'dment continued for a -day and a night, the British meanwhile enjoying the advantage of the attackers, ;n fceing able to rest in well-covered positions until the moment to advance, ' while the Germans did not know when or "where the attack would fall. •/The first infantry rush took place at ;six -o'clock in the evening, and inside ah hour the front/ line trenches- were .taken, most of the defenders being killed.-. The fight continued in the darkDeis, which was lit up by a constant succession of flares, while the Germans hnrrie3. up reinforcements by train and .mqtqr. We, however, had got our teeth an in a bulldog grip, -which will not "•some away without tearing out a piece."

HIGH COMMISSIONER'S MESSAGEThe High Commissioner reports:London, June 21, 1.50 a.m. In the sector north of Arras the French are masters of Fond de Buval. An attack in the direction of Souchez resulted in one kilometre progress. In the Argonne a violent enemy attack has been repulsed, and some prisoners taken. • On the heights of the Meuse two enemy lines were carried, and seventy prispners captured. The French have arrived near Reillon, in Lorraine, a centre of resistance.' The offensive in the valley of the Fecht continues to progress. ... .