RUSSIANS HOLDING THE ENEMY

Otago Witness, Issue 3205, 18 August 1915, Page 17

RUSSIANS HOLDING THE ENEMY

NEW LINE OE DEFENCE NOW COMPLETED COTTON AS CONTRABAND DEMONSTRATIONS AGAINST BALKAN STATES

GERMAN ATTACKS FAIL. PARIS, August 9. A communique states : A German attack north-west of Souchez station was repulsed. The enemy, after exploding a mine, violently bombarded our positions eastwards of the Lille road, in the Neuville district, and attempted to leave their trenches. They were immediately stopped by our infantry and artillery fire. The enemy attacked our advanced posts and trenches on the Vienne-la-Chateau and Binarville road, in the Argonne, with grenades and bombs, but were driven back. A fresh night attack on our position at Linge completely failed, our curtain of fire inflicting considerable losses. SUCCESS AT HOOGE. ALLIED LINES ADVANCED. LONDON, August 9. Sir John French reports : Since August 1 the artillery on both sides has been active northward and' eastward of Ypres. In these exchanges the advantage is with us. After a successful artillery bombardment this morning, in which the French on our left co-operated effectively, we attacked the trenches at Hooge captured by the enemy on the 30th ult. All were retaken. We made further progress northward and westward of Hooge, extending the front of the captured trenches to 1200 yards. During the fighting we shelled a German train at Langemarck, derailing it and burning five trucks. We captured three officers, 124 men, and two machine guns. HELMETS FOR TRENCHES. ' PARIS, August 9. The French troops have already been furnished with 300,000 steel helmets, painted grey, and hardly visible at a distance. Already specimen casques have been received from the front after undergoing the enemy’s fusilade. They bear marks of a bullet which would have killed men wearing ordinary kepis. GERMAN “RELIABLE” REPORTS. LONDON, August 9. The French Embassy publishes a communique, which states that in the Argonne the enemy’s activity is incessant, but all German attacks were repulsed with heavy losses, apart from our loss of portion of an advanced trench. The number of prisoners claimed by the Germans is double the truth. In Lorraine no French reconnaissance was repulsed, but we repulsed the Germans. The confused and embarrassed language of the German communiques conceals the persistence of their reverses in the Vosges, where we captured the important ridges of Lingekopf and Barrenkopf, and have thrown back numerous enemy attacks. No French aeroplanes were shot down by German artillery. FRENCH MINERS RESTIVE. PARIS, August 9The disorders at Mons and Charleroi are increasing. The miners refuse to work, and many have been shot. DESOLATION IN FRANCE. LONDON, August 9. Some of the British members of the Allies’ Committee of Agricultural Relief have returned after a visit to the ruined districts of France. They state that it is impossible to exaggerate the extent of the destruction in the Marne and Meuse valleys. The Germans shelled and fired places wholesale. Many villages are without a sign of life, as the people who remain live underground. Cultivation is still carried on by French women, who are loading carts, driving reapers, cultivating land within a few kilometres of the trenches, and are working uncomplainingly in the midst of desolation and ruin. The whole valley of the Marne is again under cultivation. The people of England are generously responding to the committee’s appeal for stud cattle, and King George has headed the list with five rams from the famous Sandringham flock. OFFENSIVE NEAR DIXMUDE. AMSTERDAM, August 10. The Telegraaf states that a heavy artillery action, equalling in intensity the big Year battles, has been heard in the direc-

tion of Dixmude. It continued all day, without a second’s silence.