IMPORTANT OBJECTIVES GAINED BY MID-MORNING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16657, 29 September 1917, Page 7

IMPORTANT OBJECTIVES GAINED BY MID-MORNING.

ENGLISH AND SCOTCH BEAR HEAVIEST BURDENS. Australian and N.Z. LONDON, Sept. 27. Mr. Percival Phillips states: " Wednesday's attack commenced in heavy mist and semi-darkness. It involved a number of new German divisions in the fighting, which was of a most determined character. efforts to hold the British in check caused them severe losses. By 11 o'clock in the morning the British were engaged clearing dugoul s in the western outskirts of Zonnebeke village, and the Australians were fighting on the eastern slope beyond Polygon Wood. This success was followed all day by almost continuous attacks by German storm troops on both sides of the Menin Road. They drove repeatedly against Tower Hamlets ridge, below the Ypres-Menin Road, and against the Australian line in Polygon Wood, east of Ypres. We shall remember Tuesday as a day of bitter, savage effort by the enemy, in which he employed every man and gun he could scrape together in order to try and regain a footing on the scarred hills beyond Ypres. ' "Troops from the Home Country and Scotland at Tower Hamlets Ridge bore the brunt of the storm, which ended in a German defeat. The coveted slopes are now covered by their dead. The fighting at Zonnebeke and Polygon Wood on Wednesday involved an advance of 1000 yards. We already held the Anzac redoubt, midway between Zonnebeke and Polygon Wood, and the Zonnebeke redoubt, and the western half of Polygon Wood. "The hardest work fell to English and Scottish troops attacking below Polyg<"' Wood, who had to retake a steep slope at Tower Hamlets, which was lost during German counter-attacks. They advanced from the marshes, and Tower Hamlets Ridge was the scene of close quarters' fighting. By 7 o'clock all our goals had been reached, and Prussian reinforcements brought up at night were evicted, though thev had been ordered to hold the positions at all costs. We have an unobstructed view of Zandvoorde, a mile and a-half due south of Gheluvelt, from Tower Hamlets Ridge. Elsewhere we overlook Becelaere and Gheluvelt, reducing opportunities for German counterattacks. Nevertheless, the Germans to-day wasted men freely. When Zonnebeke was taken Germans could be seen coining over the ridg* from Passchendale to the north-east until our guns swept them away. '