SURPASSES ALL EFFORTS.

North Otago Times, Volume CV, Issue 13856, 17 April 1917, Page 5

SURPASSES ALL EFFORTS.

MAGNITUDE OF ALLIES' OFFENSIVE '\,, BATTLE Of LENS , _ -.0 ... i, *****: , BREACHING ENEMY DEFENCES TREMENDOUS STRUGGLE IN PROGRESS S A » - ~tmk GHOULISH GERMANS AMAZING REPORTS OF TREATMENT. OF DEAD AMERICA ALL IN

PRESIDENTS MESSAGE TO HIS PEOPLE REDUCTION OF, GERMANY'S RATION p . . . '. >i - N W«r o»hl>— Vtpn Association— Copyright.) .ANGLO-FRENCH WESTERN PTTfifr.

NEW OFFENSIVE SURPASSES ALL RECORDS. BRITISH CAPACITIES INACCURATELY GAUGED BY VON HINDENBURG. \ ' >■' TROOPS RUSHING FROM THE EAST TO FLANDERS. ("The Times" Service.) Received April 16,5.5 p.m. LONDON, April 15. Colonel Repington, writing in the Times, states that the extent of the front, the numbers engaged, and the armament equipment of the new offensive surpass all records) Marshal von' HindeUurg apparently thought that by withdrawing some ten , miles and devastating the intervening space he would give the submarines time to harm Britain, and gaining further time by trther withdrawals. This plan might have succeeded had he . t inaccurately gauged our offensive capacities. The transfer of German troops from Russia to France has begun. The Germans are already as thick as peas on the British front, indeed, . they are thicker than anywhere else, numbering sixty divisions.

GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS OF ATTACK ON LENS. DESPERATE STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION OF TOWN. (Australian and New Zealand Cable Association.) Received April 17, 12.45 p.m. l LONDON, April 16. v Correspondents at the British Headquarters give a graphic ' -description of the attack on Lens. It was evident on Friday th/alihe enemy was quitting the town with all speed, but Satur- ■ day'sevenjp .showed that they still maintained a ring of strong '• machine-gun redoubts. ' Consequently, when the attackers at the south disappeared from the street near Bois Erieaumont the, utmost caution was necessary. The attackers wriggled through the back gardens until they reached another street behind the wood, which they attacked from the north. The .German machine-gun-ners were nonplussed when the guns were heard. The British ''meanwhile posted machine-guns wlijch enabled them to snipe -the r ; "enj,ire crews,from the new vantage points. The enemy on Sunday .•' jhrew'the entire; weight of their inner defence, with the desperate .' liopo of checking the.'.advance until the guns and stores werere,j; jnoved and the destruction of the mines was completed. Everywhere the same'methods were used which sought to hamper pursuit. 'Further'south the pioneers were exploding craters along 5% roads eastwards, and are blocking the streets with' tin; debris .prfhchouses. I - ; ''■•: ;.,■,.

INNER HISTORY OF; CAPTURE OF VIMY RIDGE,

MODELLING ARTIST ASSISTS BRILLIANT VICTORY. > ~ (Reuter's Telegrams) , Received April 16, 5.5 p.ni) , LONDON,' April 15, Barter's Headquarters correspondent states that he has unimpeachable authority for stating that the victory at Vimy Ridge was directly associated with a pretty little model-a•wonderful scale reproduction in the neighbourhood -oj : : the ridge, on-which a clever artist, furnished with a mass of/aerial photographs and information by local inhabitants, had worked?'/ for months prior to the attack,juid' from : which the staff officers most carefully instructed the, Canadians, and the Canadian and British officers and noh-comst who were selected for the assault. Every detail of the ground.was reproduced with amazing fidelity, and this greatly assisted the operations'. 'y ' V , BRUTAL GERMANS'" GHOULISH PRACTICES. > BODIES OF DEAD CONVERTED INTO OILS AND PIGS' FEED. i v * ■ (Reuter's Telegrams.) Received April 16, 7 p.m. LONDON, April 15. The Lokal Anzeiger's war col-respondent publishes the first ' German admission of the treatment of the dead* The correspondent says: We passed through Evergnicourt, where there was a dull smell, likeibuiminglhhe.- It is the great. corpse exploitation establishment of'the Champagne army group. ' Here the bodies are treated, and ttie fat won is turned into lubricating oils. Everything else is ground down by bone mills into . powder for pigs' food and manure.' Nothing must be wasted.

IMMENSE TACTICAL ADVANTAGE OP B&ITIBH ADVANCE. ■ \ . 'V AMAZINGLY STRONG DEFENCES B&EACHEDJ RENEWED SUCCESSES FOLLOW CANADIANS' BRILLIANT DASH, STIRRING STORY OF IRRESISTIBLE ATTACK ON LENS FORTRESSES. (Australian and New Zealand Cable Association.) LONDON, April 15.

Mr Philip Gibbs, writing to the Daily Chronicle, reports that the German re-occupation of Lagnicourt was of the Briefest, the Australians recapturing jt with the utmost clash. Lens and Lievm are stocked with gum and fortified in the most formidable way, being strongholds of massed artillery; but all are threatened by the advance down the' northern slopes of Vimy, for the Canadians are not likely to stay inactive after the great triumph. The fortresses ah also threatened by the British advance from Loos battlefield. -The German staff knew their peril, and there were wild scenes at Lens during the efforts to remove the guns, stores, and troops. Until dawn on Friday the enemy hoped that the British would be held back by the Germim rearguards in Vimy-lc-Petit and /Vimy villages, but all hope had disappeared when the Canadians swept down the ridge and chased the enemy out of those places' on to the lower slopes towards Douai.

"One of the great and far-reaching results followed swiftly the Canadians' capture of Yiray Ridge," MrGibbs continues. "Our troops cleared out the German machine gunners from their rear posts at Licvin on Saturday, enabling, the patrols to penetrate Lens. The re-taking of Lens will thrill France, and will be one of the greatest achievements of the war. Witli cunning courage some of our men entered the southern outskirts of the city, while others advanced cautiously on the western side. The enemy were still there in the machine-gun'redoubts, which would be troublesome, but only the rearguards, the main body being i' already in retreat. After the British-Canadian success on Friday the enemy saw their last chance of a successful counterattack had been foiled, and were immediately seized with fear* and prepared for instant retreat in wild confusion. One of the first signs that the enemy retreat had then begun was the fact that they began, to shell their own front lines'outside Lievin and Lens. All iiight long the sky was aflame, and in the morning I saw the enemy making a merry little hell in Lens and the suburbs, also the dependent villages. Explosions continued in the morning and in the afternoon. Meanwhile our men were advancing from Lievin and through it, having'had a hard and' costly task to root out the machine-gun emplacements, especially in two terribly strong redoubts called "Crook" and '''Crazy." Each group of streets had separate defences of barbed wire and sand-bag barricades, also a nest 1 of machine guns. A quick advance through Lens would have meant a great and needless sacrifice of life. I witnessed the attack on the southern suburbs of Lens. The troops swarmed over the open ground in scattered groups and took cover.under an embankment, where other at- ' tackers joined them. After waiting for half an hour they doubled half-left,'led by an officer well ahead, crossed a sunken road/ascended the slope, and suddnely changed direction again before reaching.the crest, disappearing in .a long and straight--street, , The correctness of this manoeuvre was immediately proved, for the German shells plastered the embankment where , they were previously assembled. Other troops crept up, steering erratically in short rushes until they also, reached the same street. Lens was being breached at last. Another view showed the British shell-fire falling heavily, about the-church, the enemy's troops and transports retreating hastily.'' . Mr Gibbs in a later message states that the attack on the •southern suburbs was successful.) The British, avoiding a,direct assault of the'hill, crept round the left and. gained the high ground to, the north-west, where they captured Bois de Riaumont. The enemy, recovering from the first panic, sent back', troops to the trenches and machine-gun redoubts in the western. /■> suburbs, finding-there was insufficient time to prepare the rear,- . Riiu'ril positions between Drocourt and Queant. Meanwhile; two thousand women and children and'old men were unable to

i^-ipocliii-JpK the interval, and are now taking 'refuge in the

collars, enduring- the agonies of "the bombardment The Ger : nians quitted Licviii in such, haste that we captured vast quan.; fities of .bombs, trench mortars; and■ shells. The.' '■'Gorman'-' vcounter-attaqk at Laguicour.t is dear evidence of the,enemy's anxiety. At this portion of "the line the village faces the. portant bastion of Qucant (twclvcUiiilcs south-cast of ;Arrnsy.,!