ENEMY DEALT DEADLY BLOW ON MESSINES RIDGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16823, 13 April 1918, Page 8

ENEMY DEALT DEADLY BLOW ON MESSINES RIDGE.

HELD BY TIRED TROOPS ON MAIN DEFENSIVE LINES. GERMAN DEAD STREW GROUND NEW ZEALANDERS WON. Australian and N.Z. (Received 1.30 a.m.) LONDON, April 12. Mr. Philip , Gibbs writes: Yesterday afternoon and to-day the enemy exerted all his strength in men and guns between the Lys River and Wytsohaoto. Our troops, fighting without respite, hold him on our main defensive positions, while" thrusting him back from important ground By repeated counter-attacks. Once again we were outnumbered. Only the courage and the stubborn will of battalions weakened by casualties prevented the enemy from making rapid progress. Instead he was flung back from Wytschaote and Messinos with most sanguinary losses. We have given ground along the Lys Canal south of Armentieres. The Germans put up temporary bridges, which we shelled to pieces. We have also given up Armentieres, with its gay little restaurants and tea-shops. • The enemy yesterday reached Wytschaeto and Mcssines, where the British came up at a great pace, drove the enemy off the crest of the ridge and dealt him a deadly blow Tho German dead now lie thick on the ground the English, Irish, and New Zeaknders won last June. Tho Germans came on wave, after wavo. At the end of the day's agony they had not gained a yard of the crest, but were beaten back on the reverse side of the slope. After tho reverse at Givenchy the enemy attacked on tho Lys Canal, north and south of Estaires. Sometimes the water was shallow enough for the troops to wade, but the Scotch machine-guns caught tho enemy in the ditch and heaped it with'their bodies. Some Northumberland Fusiliers and Royal Scots, after desperate fighting against overwhelming odds, were forced to abandon Houplines, a mile aorth-east of Armentieres.