WINNING LA BASSE VILLE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16619, 16 August 1917, Page 5

WINNING LA BASSE VILLE.

STEPPING-STONE TO LILLE.

STRUGGLE FOR A WINDMILL.

LONDON. August 3. •The New Zealanders gallantly captured La Bassee Ville after hours of grim fighting against well-equipped troops with numerous machine guns. There was much bomb-fighting, and the cellars were filled with German dead. Bombing and subsequent artillery fire completely destroyed the village.

Reu.ter's correspondent says the enemy frequently and determinedly counterattacked unsuccessfully at La Basse Villa, which is a very definite stepping-stone towards Lille.

Eye-witnesses describe the windmill near La Basse Ville, which the Australians $ took, as the outstanding feature on a slight hillock in miles of nat country. Ihe Germans, realising its importance, had fortified the environs extensively, using every possible obstacle, including wired hedges, in order to keep possession. They reckoned without the Australians, who, lighting to the right of the broken ground overlooking Wyschaete, cnarged magnificently on luesday morn- ! ing- They won their way foot by foot up ! the knoll to the windmill, despite the [ fiercest opposition. ' j One Australian battalion bayoneted 100 defenders. The survivors had had enough ' and threw up their hands. A most des- I perate battle raged for hours around this | small hillock in the midst of the plain." The Australians ultimately reached the summit and captured the windmill. | The Germans, knowing the great value of the windmill for observation purposes, massed greatly superior numbers of fresh troops and charged and retook the mill at ! night, regardless of loss. The Australians did not yield easily, and beat off numerous counter-attacks before sheer weight of men gained the windmill. The Germans, however, did not enjoy possession long. The Australians, making a magnificent bayonet charge at midnight, literally hacked their way back, till the knoll and farm-lands were strewn with German corpses. There the Australians remain in the midst of a j ram of German shells.

Australians had a former fierce fight for a windmill on the crest of the rise bevond Pozieres.