SUCCESSFUL LOAN FLOTATION

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 14449, 8 November 1917, Page 3

SUCCESSFUL LOAN FLOTATION

(Elec Tel. Copyright— United Press Aasn.J

' . MELBOURNE, Nov. 7. The 'Liberty loah lias reached 20^ millions. .-"■'..

CAPTURE OF BELLE VtE

OAiTADIAN ATTACK • -i- * - ■

MERCE GERMAN" RESISTANOE.

\LONDON, .Cfct. 50. - Mr Perry Robinson sends; a graphic description of the capture by the Canadians of the complicated nests of positions on Bellevue Spur, over bogs, streams, mud, shell holes, m torrents of *aW; dna^thVougii' irite^'e macKirie guii f and artillery fire. The Germans rushed up field guns at Passohendaele, and fired shrapnel almost point-blank, while snippers 'and machine gunners m numberless isolated posts made the storm of "bullets 'terrific. The Canadians were compelled «to halt midway to t'Keir objectives. The ;English were checked on their left, and jthis eiposed the Canadians' .flank; buY •the difficulties were overcome, and Von~ rfact was 1 established^ by eleven o'clock. Throughout the afternoon thie. • position i 'was perilous. The 'first German counter-:! attack was caught by the, artillery arm; dispersed. The was • stronger, ancfc had to be fought "witnxifle, fire and ;: 'bayonets. 'Late m the, afternoon,' whten .the men were tired with 12 hours''dread■ful fighting, and. 'were ' lying there- in\ ■mud waste, : exposed to fire, and oUtnuiri-' Jjered, they were .reinforced; by troops who had gallantly come through the fenemy barrage. :■■■" . .» Shortly; before six o'clock, when tfJe day was closing m, the. line; »pse from the mud ,and the shell-Woles and swept *&>rward over the tumbled ruins of itoenches, endless : entanglements* and debris*. Rushing^ botobjng, knd (stbrm-' 'ing the concrete :ppsi<>ionsi clear tip, the: slopes, the men'reaclied a'rpad m which were 18 concreted' machine %tins. and hea\fy ; lin6s -<if Getmaksv ,\Th^*Cariaa|Kwf formed through, and when it "Was eight) o'clock tiib . jilacS was ► By HgHt the ; whole; of- ; B-elleyiie s was. r cuJYA* tured. - It had been wild, despei&Slj 1 fighting m the dark. /A- sterner or more determined piece of work had never been edone i-'by tired- men:- 'The/ spurTv.aa'jStrewn with' German dead, being the 'price; of 'their fierce, concentrated resistance. ', The heavy blow laun&bed at',dawn foV I lowed 12 days of ceaseless pounding of Bellevue and Passchendaele. The Ausftralians' part m the operations was.ii' Ivery minor one, a few troops being /engaged merely m 'protecting the right J Iflank^ wiih; a narrow movement on the irailway-V ■ * The battle' extended far to the northwArd beyond Poelkappelle I . .'into, the tHouthulst Forest. 3?he place <i£ honor was, given to thei Canadians, whose objec(tives included Bellevue. The ' Australians ?and Zealanders were disappointed ■at 'having '-to hand over the completion of ithe capture of the ridge the' Canasdiansi who, however, to the utmost ap■preciate the result of the previous fightiing. ' . v A -noteworthy feature of the Oanafdians' entry into the Ypres region was-a--visit of them generals to an outlyinjj shell hole,, whence 'they closely s-cjrut-r 'inised / Bellevro. ',^'They lay V;on ItHeir^ : storaachs m the mud and studied the jtf etails of the system of this remarkable; 'bastion.

■ Bellevue Spur is an ugly V-shaped hiir.t 'risincf to. the height of 200 ft .above, the •wooded \Rababeke Creek. Its brown ;sides "for ;l|oOOy.ds baclc/into Pas--ftihWdaele fcownshvp. ■• -At' the- point 'of" the V, which is about 200 yds wide, a deep concrete structure stood ovei'lonking our lines/ the ;nam>w| slits 'manned by machine gunners and snipers,. governing every approach. Two irregular brown lines; each .10ft deep, extended across the front .6f lithe: redflmbt downhill 1 to the valley, wherfe a smtiller reddtibt barred the flank. These lines are wire. Viewed from a shell hole m our front line across the southern valley, Bellevue looked -a fprbiddinjr.stronchold.s'apdi worthy of the seene 1 of one of the great— est incident^ of the . wh y. Its power is intensely impressive. It 'seams' em-' body all the formidability and strength of Germany's ambitions. It looked desolate and -forsaken, with no sign of ''life or movement, but it was full of Mddeni power. . ,■......,