BRITISH WARSHIPS BOMBARD GERMAN POSITIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15747, 23 October 1914, Page 5

BRITISH WARSHIPS BOMBARD GERMAN POSITIONS.

ENEMY CAUGHT BETWEEN TWO FIRES.

COMPELLED TO RETREAT FROM BELGIAN COAST. London, October 21. The allies have made excellent progress in Belgium. British warships were of great service in bombarding tho Germans advancing on Nieuport, 10 miles south-west of Ostend. The British naval guns, finding the range marvellously, shelled the enemy along tho dykes, the German artillery being forced to retire. The allies made a general advance, and many Germans were taken prisoners, while a large number of Belgian and French prisoners wore released. Meanwhile the British warships raked the villages southward of Middelkerke, between Ostend and Nieuport, and dropped heavy shells in the rear of the Germans. A detachment with machine guns advanced, and the Germans, caught between two fires, wavered and yielded. The infantry pressed forward, while the cannonading from the sea increased, and the infantry fire redoubled. The whole German line resting on the sea retreated, and removed their guns towards Ostend, the wounded traversing Bruges to Ghent and Brussels. It is reported that the Germans are fortifying Ostend on the sea and south sides. The Amsterdam Telegraaf states that 30,000 Germans are entrenched between Middelkerke, five, miles north-east of Nieuport, and Nieuport.