FURIOUS STRUGGLE RAGING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16823, 13 April 1918, Page 7

FURIOUS STRUGGLE RAGING

■£&- *■ fe. i Hence of messines ridge WgMr, 4 lllfe — 1 , JpMj i enemy assaults beaten off I GUNS ACTIVE ON FRENCH FRONT llfM'* b£ij?;h »- pvt- The attack on the British line in Flanders continues with ||tl& unabated violence, the battle raging from the La Bassee Canal Slit'to the Yyres-Comines Canal. Heavy assaults on the line of the River Lawe, scath of Estaires, were beaten off with great |§|§f loss. The thrust between Estaires and Steenwerck, four miles Wg and Ji-half north-west of Armentleres, was particularly heavy, lllf .and the British line was pressed back slightly. A certain j|jpsf amount of progress was also made by the enemy in the neighbourhood of Ploegsteert Wood. A heavy attack on ths line Wk£di> between Wytschaete and Hollebeke, the southern side of the pit :, 'Ypre» salient, was repulsed with great loss. The ruins of HP Armentieres, which were drenched with gas, have been evacupasted by the British. Ip,'' | Mr. H. Perry Robinson states that he believes the enemy , I advance against the Messines Ridge has been definitely beld. lip While the situation further south is peculiar and confused, the fpti German progress must have been very slight and in no strength. * There is artillery activity on both sides on the French g front, along practically the whole line of the recent offensive, [j■!»/'"' ind extending further east to the Verdun sector and beyond t® St. Mihiel. Two fairly heavy attacks on the Noyon sector were repulsed. There have been small infantry actions at Grivesnes, in the Moreuil region, the French improving iheir flfe positions. Enemy aircraft have displayed more defensive activity of late. _ A statement traversing what Russia has' lost by the peace i|S|;terms shows that 300,000 square miles of territory, with V 56,000, inhabitants, have been surrendered. The Germans i ' take 73 per cent, of the iron and 89 per cent, of the coal pro!.f duction, together with one*tlrird of the railways.