ENEMY ATTEMPTS TO BREAK BRITISH BARRIER.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 14283, 27 April 1917, Page 3

ENEMY ATTEMPTS TO BREAK BRITISH BARRIER.

UNPRECEDENTED SLAUGHTER, FIELDS STREWN WITH DEAD. GREAT WORK BY OUR AIRMEN. TEN GERMAN DIVISIONS SMASHED UP. (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) (Received April 27, 11.25 a.m.) ' ; LONDON, v April 26. ■ -* The » MornJng*'Postt's »report koo^taaies : The 'Germans, apparently thought it possible they might break the British barrier between Gavrelle and Douai railway, thence to the Scarpe marshes. Infantry waves flowed over the ridge? and through the copses between Fresnee and Plouvain m solid lines. No gunner could 1 ask for a better target. The appalling destruction wrought by our explosives did not affect the German observers behind Fresnes and the surviving Brandienbui'gers, .who managed : to regain the shelters, where they sotted i themselves and prepared another attack. Fresh battalions were summoned ■ to undergo the same ordeal.

The British . garrison at Gavrelle simply sat tight behind their machine guns and' killed Germans m company with, the artillery.

The fields m front were covered with corpses. ;

The entire countryside around Monchy and Fontaine was strewn with dead.

Never before have the opposing air fleets been so heavily engaged as during Monday's and Tuesday's battle. The airmen grappled with each other above the contending armies.

Aviatiks whirled down dizzy ' spirals, pursued by British airmen, who saw them crash m blazing wreckage on the battlefield. Then our planes swept low and 1 riddled the wavering line of advancing German figures with bullets. Our airmen everywhere fought Germav batteries, line regiments, and transport columns, and did not give the enemy rest.

Tanks, aeroplanes and gas shells were wielded by us m this modern battle.

Altoeether ten German divisions bave ,been -withdrawn from one part of the front and ten new ones a,re already undergoing a similar hammering.