FIERCE FIGHTING.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 4946, 21 September 1914, Page 5

FIERCE FIGHTING.

GERMANS MAKE STAND AGASNST HOT ONSLAUGHTS.

GENERAL FLIGHT FROM FRANCE PREDICTED.

DEMANDS IN PRUSSIA CAUSE ANXIETY.

RUSSIA PRESSING FORWARD.

Press Association. —Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.

VON KLUCK IN DIFFICULTIES. GETTING REINFORCEMENTS. ATTENTION TO CROWN PRINCE. Paris, Last Night. General Von Kluck is receiving reinforcements, partly from Amiens, partly from Belgium and Alaubeuge, and partly reservists from Aix-la-Cbapelle, via Liege. General Joffre’s reinforcements are ample, and are arriving by the railways, and his force is bending round the Germans’ right. The Allies are acting deliberately. The French forces on .the northern edge of Argonne are slowly pushing bold but somewhat dangerous advance intended to isolate the Crown Prince’s Army. The Germans are entrenched on the heights at Alcntfaucon between Argonne and the Meuse. Heavy rains continued on Thursday, making' the carriage of heavy guns over hilly roads very difficult.

FLAG OF TRUCE REJECTED GERMANS IN TROUBLE. Loudon, Lest Night. Mr Maxwell, the Daily Telegraph correspondent, telegraphing from the neighbourhood of Aisne of the fighting on Wednesday, says a French officer from the battle line narrates that the British and French on Tuesday surrounded a German Army | Corps, whose position was so hopeI less that a flag of truce was sent to ! demand their surrender, but .their offer was rejected, and the fight continued with relentless vigour, and many were killed or taken prisoners. The enemy are now making a desperate stand on the line from Mayon to the forest of Argonne.

During the eight days’ occupation of Rheims the Germans strengthened the hilly country with elaborate field works, enabling them to arrest the Allies’ pursuit. The latter, however, succeeded in forcing the passage of the Aisne west of Rheims, and on Tuesday the enemy’s entrenched fortified position was carried by assault after two days’ desperate struggle in the face of a terrible fire.

GERMAN POSITION PERILOUS. LEFT WING YIELDING. Paris, Last Night. -An official communique says: The battle continues from the Oise to Woevre without important change. Slight progress has been made on the heights north of the Aisne. Three counter attacks against the British were unsuccessful, while the French repulsed three night counter attacks from Caronne to Rheims. The enemy vainly attempted to take the offensive against Rheims. The Germans are acting purely on the defensive from Rheims to Argonne, also similarly in Lorraine and the A osges. The line of evacuation at Varennes indicates that the left is yielding, and the German army’s position in general is perilous. There is the fortified frontier on their left and the Belgians are threatening their rear where their lines of communication are quite inadequate. Advices dated Thursday received in Paris state that the Germans are making a determined stand on the wooded hills east of Rheims and are bombarding the town which is afire insight places. TOie Allies have made continual advance with the left wing. There is a Blight lull in the battle. BATTLE OF THE AISNE. A DING-DONG STRUGGLE. MOST IMPORTANT IN THE WAR. Paris, Last Night. There is a concensus ofl opinion that the battle of the Aisne was the most important in the campaign. It was evidently not a rearguard action, but a supreme encounter, closing the era of the big operations in F ranee. A French officer states that the battle of the Aisne was the fiercest they fought. It became general in the afternoon of the 14th and #ie following day there was a ding-dong struggle, the Germans awaiting reinforcements. During the night there was a furions attack on the extreme left, where the British and the French met furious onslaughts, and were repulsed by the Germans ten times. There were fearful German losses. The Germans continued to attempt to pierce the French lines, and hurled dense masses in a supreme endeavour to check the French. At dawn the French had gained some ground. There was an artillery duel next day, and desperate infantry fighting, recommencing on the 17th, when the French threw the Germans hack ten kilometres, capturing a number of machine guns. The Germans on Thursday finally evacuated f''** ons and fell back. Despite the severity of the Aisne battle there was no anxiety in Paris. It is pointed out that the German right was very strongly placed, and it was very strongly pfaeced, and guns, nevertheless they were obliged to retire. At certain points they were less favourably placed than at other parts.

Another report states that at Acy a regiment of French territorials wore outnumbered and forced to take refuge in a large barn. They shut the gates and fought till the last man. Guns battered the building to pieces and fire added to the horror of the struggles of the wounded. A private of the Inniskillings relates: “At the battle of the Marne in front of us was a little space swept for hours by a shower of bursting shells and flying bullets. After an eternity the shower suddenly ceased, and we saw the Germans creeping across with easy confidence. Then we charged and chased them for a mile, cut them to ribbons, and ran into their cavalry supports. The impetus of the charge carried us past the cavalry, the rear of which we charged going back, giving them a fine cutting up. They cleared to the fields, leaving a trail -of dead men and horses. ALLIES’ FRONTAL ATTACK. ENEMY’S STRONG POSITIONS. Paris, Last Night. The French General Staff consider the Allies’- frontal attack is developing on favourable conditions, the German counter-attacks being repulsed. The Allies’ gain is necessarily slow owing to the strength of the German fortified position. Final successes wall probably be achieved by threatening communications rather than by carrying positions. Meanwhile German communications are not precarious. Some suppose that while they hold Tergnier and Laon they have two lines of railway running across Luxemburg, and the Belgian railways via Mons and Saint Quentin. There was furious fighting on Thursday. The British section of the line and some famous regiments suffered severely, but performed their, task unflinchingly, and occupied some advanced positions at terrible cost. The German trenches north of Chalons were over three feet deep with splinter screens every twenty yards and resting places. The trenches consist of several parallel rows flanked by others running at right angles with concealed machine guns. All accounts agree that the famous Prussian Guards Corps were practically blotted out in the battles of the Marne and the Aisne. An American officer present estimated that the German dead during the fighting in the centre around Rebais and Ohampenoise between the Bth and 12th September amounted to 15.000 to 20,000. The majority were bayonetted in the trenches in hand to hand fighting with ther Turcos and the Songaleso. STUBBORN COURAGE. London, Last Night. King Albert telegraphed his deepest admiration for the stubborn courage of the British at the battle ot the Marne, and said: “God will surely help our armies to avenge the atro. cities on peaceful citizens of this country, whose only crime was that they refused to be false to their engagements.” King George’s reply declared: “The heroic efforts of the Belgian armies are beyond all praise and I hope that combined efforts of the Alims and Belgium will free your muchtried country from the invader.”

THE GERMAN PLANS. TO WITHDRAW FROM FRANCE. WITHOUT A FINAL BATTLE. London, Last Night. The Times’ military correspondent says there is no cause for anxiety because the Allies are not immediately overwhelming the Germans. The necessity of fighting methodically and in unison was fought by earlier experiences in the campaign. It is now needful to repair the bridges and assemble the troops and supplies preparatory to a long struggle. Rome, Last Night. There is an impression in diplomatic circles that Germany has realised the impossibility of extensive operations in France and will probably evacuate Belgium shortly and concentrate the second line along the Belgian-French frontier and push all available forces against the Russians who are threatening the almost undefended Austro-Gcrman f rentier. Berne. Last Night Despatches from German railway centres announce a sudden general movement of concentration towards the Luxemburg frontier where there are countless empty transport trains. Tt is believed that the instant the retreating Germans reach the border it, is intended to transport, all the first line of troops to Russia without giv’V.the Allies a final battle, onlv a *«i'lent number of the sjsond line jf r left to defend Germany against * nby the Frarioo-British.

BATTLE OF SOISSONS. FOUR MILES LITTEREU. Paris, Last Night. Richard Harding Davis, the noted American novelist, witnessed the end of the Battle of Soissons. During the retreat from the Marne he says the German gunners sought to destroy the road from Meaux. Their marksmanship was so accurate and tho execution so terrific that pursuit was impossible for a while. During four days the armies thus struggled over four miles of country, which is now littered with unoxploded shells, knapsacks and uniforms. Red Cross flags bung on hushes still show where the dressing stations were, together with the bodies of German soldiers whom first aid failed to save. They are the so-called missing. Some peasants will bnrv them, riot knowing the pub, oso of the modal each man wears on his neck for the purpose of identity, and the ciroumst(ine<*s o ftbeir death will never reach their relatives. Everywhere are dead horses; some were killed by shells, hut, the majority were the property of French peasants which the Germans destroyed lest they should be used as French remounts.

FOUGHT LIKE DEVILS

Copenhagen, Last Night. In a letter a German officer states that the Germans during their retreat were foodless for twenty-tour hours, but had plenty of champagne. The British fought like devils, but we repulsed the French. THE KAISER’S TALK. Rotterdam, Last Night. The Kaiser visited his son Oscar near Longwy. Addressing the Grenades, he said: “The fighting in the neighbourhood of Longwy will be inscribed in letters of gold on the roll of history. Our successes we must ascribe to the God of our tatners.

NEW FEELING IN PARIS. London, Last Night. Paris appears to- be acquiring a new temperament. A religious revival is a striking accompaniment ot this change. Thousands daily attend the services at Notre Darner. The killed include Captain D. Stew, art who was imprisoned with Captain Trench in Germany for espionage. MAUBEUGE FORTS. Paris, Last Night. An officer who escaped from Maubeuge states that the forts were unable to respond to the German fire from a distance of eight miles. The fate of the southern and northern and north-western forts is unknown. A German prisoner, aged 15i, declared that all his school fellows over 15 had been mobilised and placed in regiments.