NEW ZEALANDERS' HARD TASK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16672, 17 October 1917, Page 7

NEW ZEALANDERS' HARD TASK

■ _ Mgallant WORK performed I GERMAN ATTACK AT RIGA p I IMPROVEMENT IN DEFENCES W !-*£■ if The difficult conditions met by the New Zealand troops JL in the fighting northeast of Ypres on Friday are described M by the New Zealand war correspondent. The front was a |- sea of mud, liberally dotted with water-logged shell holes, g the consequent difficulties belnf such that the advance was p a very short one, Transport of the wounded also was a matter |. of the gravest difficulty. Machine-guns in strong concrete ff ■ positions, fronted by barbed wire not severed by the artillery, ; added to the peril of the undertaking. Nevertheless a heavy blow was dealt the enemy, and prisoners were secured. Both New Zealanders and Australians were especially active bringing up their guns over the marshy ground behind the £/ lines, The New Zealand stretcher-bearers suffered considerably | from snipers for a time, until measures were taken to deal k with the situation. The Russian .forces have checked the advance of the Germans into the Gulf of Riga, their long range guns com* njctflding much of the position. The defending naval forces s haTe been reinforced and have pressed back the German naval forces. A further attack upon the coast of Finland is anticipated. Improvement is taking place in the morale of the Russian Navy, and the prospects of its fighting well in the Baltic are considered good. A British minesweeper, which Is overdue, is lettered to have been lost with all hands. A merchant cruiser has been torpedoed and sunk, with the loss of five officers and 57 men. '*• Action on the British and French fronts in the western theatre is confined to reciprocal artillery work and isolated raids. The Italians repulsed an attack on the Carso Plateau. British troops made i demonstration in the neighbourhood of Seres, on the north-east flank of the Salonika front.