STEADY WEARING DOWN OF ENEMY ON BRITISH FRONT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16600, 25 July 1917, Page 7

STEADY WEARING DOWN OF ENEMY ON BRITISH FRONT.

GERMANS UNCERTAIN WHERE NEXT BLOW WILL FALL.

SHELLING OF GREAT VIOLENCE IN SEVERAL SECTORS. Australian and N.Z- Cable Association. LONDON, July 23.

Writing from British headquarters, Mr. Philip Gibbs states that since the German thrust at Lombaertzyde on July 10, there have been no important actions on the British front, but many raids and minor activities have occurred. Shelling is sometimes of great violence about Lens, Ypres, and close to the coast. The enemy is suffering a great wastage of men. A single German division which went to Lens has been burying 80 men daily for weeks. Blood flows in a steady stream from Germans at Lens. The Germans retaliate by shelling Wytschaete, Messines, Armentieres, and Loos, but the bombardment does not reveal any definite purpose. The enemy pours out gas shells, and the British retaliate with gas clouds, which creep into the German craters and trenches and kill any man taking a breath.

The enemy carried out a particularly ferocious bombardment to-day between Lombaertzyde and Nieuport, using many gas shells. Apparently he is doubtful when the next blow will fall, and is trying to do as much damage as possible before it happens, when the heaw guns must hurry back, as at Wytschaete and Messines.