WESTERN THEATRE

New Zealand Times, Volume XL, Issue 9092, 10 July 1915, Page 7

WESTERN THEATRE

VIOLENT INFANTRY ATTACKS B j Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright. PARIS, July 8. A communique states: North of Arras somewhat violent infantry actions developed last night. We completely repulsed a German attack, which was preceded by a heavy bombardment, between Angres and Souchez, to the north 'of the Bethune road. We attacked the North Souchez station, and approached the village, carrying a line of Gorman trenches, after annihilating all the defenders with grenades and petards. Soissons was again bombarded. In the Argonne, the Germans, in the region of Mario Therese, tried to leave their trenches, but were repulsed. Enemy attacks between Fey-en-Haye and Bois Is Protre were stopped at the outsetMANY GERMAN MILITARY TRAINS FOR THE WEST . ZURICH, July 8. Travellers report that two thousand military trains have crossed the Rhine at Coblentz, Mayence, and Mannheim, in connection with the westward movement of troops. GERMAN-SWISS FRONTIER TO BE RE-OPENED LONDON, July 8. - A Berne message states that the Germano-Swiss frontier is to be reopened. The Germans refuse to disclose the military reasons which necessitated it closure. A GERMAN OFFICIAL MESSAGE LONDON, July 8. A German official message states: The French west of Souchez penetrated our trenches for a distance of 880 yards, but a counter-attack ejected them, except along a small portion, where grenade fighting continues. There are vigorous artillery combats along the entire front. A GERMAN ATTACK BROKEN UP , (Received July 9, 10 p.m.) ! PARIS, July 9. Official.—“A German attack against the trenches which the British captured on the sixth south-west of Pilkem was broken up, with very heavy losses, the attackers being caught between the fire of the British artillery and our field guns. I ’ ' “A very violent German counter-attack was launched north of Souchez station, in. an endeavour to retake the trenches wo captured on Wednesday evening. The Germans only succeeded in occupying one hundred metres out of eight hundred. “Mine warfare in tho'Noyon region developed to our advantage. ’ THE FIGHTING IN THE “LABYRINTH” (Received July 9, 11.10 p.m.) .. PARIS, July 9. An eye-witness of the fighting in the “Labyrinth” narrates that on a front of barely ten miles hundreds of thousands of men hare been incessantly engaged since the beginning of May attacking and defending the watershed whence the Scheldt flows. / The Germans brought their best troops to defend the entrance to the Lens : Plam 6f the garrison of Souchez, fighting superbly at Buval Bottom, only ten \ were taken to Alsace. They need, all their discipline to withstand the fury \of the French attack. . . , ... * .. , \ A divisional commander recently complained that the men Ayere not talcing elementary precautions. The men replied, with affectionate respect:- \ “Well, general, we are all here to he killed,and they cheered when the ’general retorted: “Yes, my children, you and I are here to be killed, but we must so contrive that our deaths shall be useful to France. A TERRIBLE MOMENT OF SLAUGHTER (Received July 10, 1.0 a.m.) - LONDON. July 9. \ The Germans sometimes burrow sixty feet. There is a regular system of so-called communication bowels, also a great concentration of heavy artillery oni the slopes of Angres and in Bois de Folio. i There is much fighting in the underground galleries by the light of torches and electric flares, and attacks by hand grenades which fijl the galleries with poisonous fumes. This ends in desperate hand-to-hanu encounters. 1 An officer in charge of the machine-gun section narrates tnat after a week of ajpache warfare wherein the Germans were fighting with automatic revolt ers and knives, the Germans organised a night attack. “I moved a machine-gun to a barricade in the main street, and when the Germans debouched at fifty metres distance and filled the whole street, they fell one after another when the gun caught them It was a terrible moment of slaughter.”