GERMANS FOILED AT YPRES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15767, 16 November 1914, Page 7

GERMANS FOILED AT YPRES

PICKED TROOPS HURLED BACK. HEROIC BRITISH DEFENCE ALLIES RE-TAKE DIXMDE. APPALLING GERMAN LOSSES. GERMANY'S EASTERN DEFENCES. STRENGTHENING A FORTRESS BLOCKING THE WAY TO BERLIN. A desperate battle has been fought at Ypres, resulting from a determined but unsuccessful German effort to dislodge the British force which has held the town against all assaults for over three weeks. The Prussian Guard, composed of picked troops, was brought up specially to strengthen the attack. A terrific bombardment, the heaviest the British troops have yet experienced, was followed by a determined assault by the first and fourth brigades of the Prussian Guard. The British line was broken at three points by the overpowering numbers of the attackers, but in the end the enemy was driven back with immense loss. Seven hundred dead bodies were found behind the first trenches alone and elsewhere the Germans suffered enormous losses. The British casualties were heavy. They made a splendid resistance.against odds and stifl hold Ypres. The allies have retaken Dixmunde, which is about twelve miles north of Ypres. A few days ago the Germans occupied Dixmunde, after suffering terrific loss. The troops were ordered not to return alive if they did not take the town, and in the first desperate assault 80 per cent, of them were killed. The fields were flooded, and both sides fought in the water. Finally the German corpses formed a footway for their advancing infantry. The town was reduced to ruins, and its site occupied by the Germans, who were then exposed to a shell fire which threatened to exterminate them, and finally driven from the position by a French bayonet charge. Captured German officers estimate the recent German losses in the Dixmunde district at 90,000. In one battle south of Dixmunde 3000 Germans were killed in ten minutes. One regiment 1800 strong now musters 80. The Germans have failed in an attack on Nieuport and in an effort to cross the Yser Canal. All their attacks on the allied line in France have failed. The Russian progress in East Prussia continues. They are fighting at Stallup, 20 miles across the frontier of East Prussia. The Germans have 6000 workmen working night and day strengthening the frontier fortress of Thorn, which is within 200 miles of Berlin Russians are advancing on the Turkish fortress of Ezerum, in Armenia. They have already inflicted great losses on the Turks. It is stated in naval and wireless circles at Dover that two German submarines have recently been destroyed in the English Channel. Canada expects to have 150,000 troops in the field by next November if the war is still in progress at that time.