FRENCH ASSAILED BY HALF-A-MILLION INFANTRY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16203, 13 April 1916, Page 5

FRENCH ASSAILED BY HALF-A-MILLION INFANTRY.

GERMAN FORCES REDUCED BY 50 PER CENT. IN A MONTH

APPALLING SACRIFICES CAUSED BY MACHINE-GUN FIRE.

London, April 11.

It is authoritatively stated that the losses of the German units at Verdun from February 29 to April 1 averaged 50 per cent, As an example, the Third and Eighteenth Army Corps were withdrawn, from the lines after losing respectively 22,000 and 17,000.

At Vaux Fort over half the Seventh and Sixtieth Regiments wera mown down., by the French machine-guns. During the attack on Vaux village on March 9 the Nineteenth Regiment lost 60 per cent. One company was annihilated. During the attacks on Malancourt and Avocourt Woods on March '20 and 22 three regiments of the Eleventh Bavarian and four regiments of second L&ndwehr divisions lost half their effectives.

Referring to the strength of the Germans, the samo source s&'ys that between February 21 and April 1 239 infantry and 23 engineer battalions ware engaged at Verdun, totalling 1145 companies averaging 260 men. Thus there were 208,000 infantry, alone in action. The> were reinforced by 80 battalions, and the total infantry faced by the French was 450,000.

GREAT FIRES CAUSED BY ITALIAN ARTILLERY.

AUSTRIAN FRONTIER FORT SERIOUSLY DAMAGED.

(Received April 12, 10.80 p.m.)

• Rome, April 12.

A communique states: "Between the Adige and the Sugana . Valleys our artillery caused great fires in the neighbourhood of Calceranica.

"We. seriously damaged Fort Luserna, near the frontier."

Tlio British now hold a lin'e of nearly 100 miles from Dixmude to the River Somme. Activity is to-day reported at several points, including • St. Eloi, south of Ypres, where the struggle for certain mine crater's continues. The British now hold three out of five craters. (The enemy hag-exploded mines north-east of Vermelles.