LEFT WING ADVANCING.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 204, 2 October 1914, Page 7

LEFT WING ADVANCING.

THE RE-TAKING OF PERONNE. GENERAL SITUATION SATISFACTORY. Ttic High Commissioner reports: —- LONDON, September 30. Paris reports: On the left wing action'.is ■developing further north. The enemy-delivered a vigorous attack on Tracy-le-Montj which has been repulsed w T ith loss. Prom Rheims to the Meuse there is lio.change. lif the Wajvre there has :l>een severe fighting. The situation on the right wing is unchanged. A message from Amiens on Sunday says that the French retook Peronne on the 16th. Severe fighting followed until the 18th, when the French were on the outskirts of St. Quentih. The Germans, seeing their danger, hurried up the reinforcements, and ordered that the ground lost must be regained at any cost. The cost was heavy, but the French wore slowly rolled westward. Oh. the 23rd the Germans retook Peronne. The Frenclr< concentrated . heavy guns a'nd drove out the Germans, who brought up further artillery, and were able to recapture the town on the 26th. The French are doggedly fighting every inch of ground. They have found an effective method of disturbing the enemy. Flying columns of heavy cavalry at night-time ride through the German lines at full speed, and charge through the bivouacs, burning convoys .>nd motor cars, and upsetting vast , .quantities of oil. ( *..- PARIS, October 1. A comniunique states: "The general a situation is satisfactory. There : is no I perceptible change in th'e front, except in the Southern Woevre. There we oc-. cupied Seichapprey, and advanced to the slopes of Raptbemad. i "During the fighting at Peronne three batteries suddenly opened five, and the first five discharges destroyed a German battery completely, and subsequently rendered the enemy's positions untenable." The "Daily Mail's" Paris correspondent says that - the. Germans for a fortnight have been struggling to avoid having their rkjht wing turned, and have kept pushing their front. further to the north-west, the Allies always overlapping them. Both' sides brought up very large reinforcements, necessitating long forced marches. French troops again and again marched twenty miles in a day. The Germans on Saturday realised that their efforts were in vain, and altered their plan, trying to break through the Allies' line at Albert.