ALLIED ATTACK BY LAND, SEA, AND AIR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16034, 28 September 1915, Page 7

ALLIED ATTACK BY LAND, SEA, AND AIR.

BOMBARDMENT OF UNPRECEDENTED INTENSITY.

MOVEMENTS OF GERMANS SUGGESTIVE OF RETREAT

ENORMOUS ENEMY CASUALTIES UNDER ALLIED FIRE. (Received September 27. 7.30 p.m ) Rotterdam, September 26. There are persistent reports that the Anglo-French armies have achieved successes and are steadily, pushing forward. Movements behind the enemy's lines point to something in the nature of a retreat. The German losses under the allies' prolonged artillery fire are mounting enormously. Every available man in Belgium has been flung into the defence. Newly-arrived troops were rushed into the firing-line without a moment's rest. The villages and frontier posts are being denuded of guards. The battle raged over a wide area. All arms were engaged in simultaneous fighting on land, at sea, and in the air. Between one o'clock and ten o'clock on Saturday morning a British squadron bombarded various points of the Belgian coast, including the enemy's trenches at the westward end of their line above Nieuport. The heavy French batteries ashore also swept the line. The British ships shelled positions at Seijst, Duinbergen, and Knock, as well as coastal batteries on the sand dunes from the Dutch frontier to Westende- A misty rain hid the approach of the ships, 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 towered into the air. The bombardment of Zeebrugge Harbour was particularly severe, and foiled attempts on the part of submarines to steal out. The allied airmen, under cover of mist, successfully bombed the German positions, and the German aeroplanes were driven back over their own lines.