RECENT FIGHTING IN FLANDERS

Colonist, Volume LVII, Issue 13771, 7 May 1915, Page 5

RECENT FIGHTING IN FLANDERS

A FRENCH ADVANCE

GERMAN OFFENSIVE NORTH OF

YPRES

:EE USE OF GAS AND ASPHYX-

lATING SHELLS

BRITISH COMPELLED TO VACATE

FIRST LINE

TROOPS' INDOMITABLE STAND

ETREATING POSITION QUICKLY

RE-ESTABLISHED,

ENEMY CAUGHT IN THE GAS

(Received May 6, 8.5 p.m..) Lcndon, May 6. "Eye-Witness" states that the French have made considerable progress west of tli© Yperlee Canal and south of Pilken^ removing the German wedge in the French line between the Canal and the Ypres—Langeinarck road, representing a gain of over a thousand yards at the central point. On the 2nd the Germans assumed the offensive against the British north of Ypres. About five o'clock in the evening dense clouds of suffocating vapour were emitted from their trenches on the whole front along the French right and our left. The evening was still, and the fumes did not carry beyond our first trenches, but those were rendered untenable, and a retirement was ordered. The enemy immediately bombarded with asphyxiating shells and shrapnel. The gas on this occasion looked like a great reddish cloud. Our batteries poured a concentrated fire into the German trendies, and between us wavered the poison belt. The upper part shredded into thin vapourish wreaths as it was shaken by the wind, the lower and denser part sinking into the inequalities of the ground, and rolling down the trenches. Nevertheless the German infantry faced it. and our hail of shrapnel. Our troops held firm and shot through the cloud at the advancing Germans, while the- men holding the front line managed to move flankwards beyond its influence. They waited until the enemy reached our trenches and then bayoneted them. On the extreme left our supports charged through the vapour and met the oncoming enemy with their bayonets. The Germans fled. Large numbers were mown down and fell in heaps, many being unable to make their way through ihe gas. cloud. Probably most of the wounded perished in the fumes. Before long we occupied the trenches and re-established our original position. "Eye-Witness" recounts a recent in stance of Indian steadiness. A shill burst in the middle of a battalion of Pathans, killing and wounding sixteen. The columns immediately closed and marched on. They advanced across 1200 yards of open country under a murderous fire, their war cry swelling louder and louder above the din. One of their British officers was hit four times, but continued to lead them until he fell riddled with machine gun bullets. Prisoners captured in the rece-jt. fighting statt*. that one German coros lost eighty per cent, of its strength in the first week. The losses from our artillery wero very heavy. Many o* the Germans suffered from the gas. '-'Eye-Witness" emphasises that our progress must not be measured by +ho extent of ground covered, but by the drain on the enemy's strength. The Germans' present policy is .to achieve sufficient success to influence neutrals.

CABLE NEWS.

fPuehs Association—Copyright.J