Fighting in France

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 123, 17 October 1914, Page 5

Fighting in France

HAND-TO-HAND CONFLICTS. STERN STRUGGLE ABOUND ROYE. FRENCH SURPRISE ASSAULT AT DAYBREAK. ENEMY PREPARES TO RETREAT. GERMAN AIRMEN WELL INFORMED. ATTACK ON FRENCH PRESIDENT. Paris, October 15. For three weeks Roye was the scene of the fiercest hand-to-hand encounters. The town and the surrounding villages were taken and re-taken at least a dozen times. When the French recaptured Roye for the twelfth time they surprised a German camp among the low woodc.i hills. They attacked in the half-light of dawn, and the Germans, in their confusion, were unable to locate the direction of the attack. The result was that a thousand cavalry and a battalion nf infantry were taken prisoners. London, October 16. The Paris correspondent of The Times opines that the Germans -have taken up new positions at Compiegne, Soissons and Rlieims to enable the troops at Roye, Lassigny and Arras to secure their positions in order to retreat on as wide a front as possible. The attacks at llazebroiick are feelers, with a view to widening the western front.

Paris, October 15. It transpires tliat when M. Poincare's visit to General Joffrc had been arrange! the Germans sent one of their best aviators to drop a bomb upon 'them. This resulted in an aerial duel, in which the French aviator Frantz brought down the .German machine, the pilot and aviator . being incinerated. Frantz received thfc 'Cross of the Legion of Honor for the exploit.

A Taube aeroplane flew over St. Omer on Monday and dropped bombs, killing two and wounding six civilians. Five French aeroplanes pursued and surrounded the Taube. The French aviatora fired revolvers and killed the mechanic and wounded the German aviator. Finally the aeroplane fell, riddled with Bhot. Typhus has broken out in the German lines northward of Soissons.

I (Typhus, formerly known as "jail fever" and "camp fever," is a disease due to insanitary conditions. It has been practically wiped out in England, but the conditions prevailing in the German trenches of late must have been very favorable to the production of an outbrealc)

GERMAN OFFENSIVE DEFINITELY STOPPED. FAVORABLE OFFICIAL REPORT FROM FRANCE. Received IS, 11.3 p.m. Paris, October 1.". An official communique issued to-day ftates: "The Germans have cvacuatod the left bank of the Lys and the Lepasso Canal.

"The situation is stationary in the. Lens region. "We Slave made notable progress between Arras and Albert. "We have advanced towards Craonne. and carried several trenches in the direction of Beine, in the Rheims district. "We repulsed night attacks between the Mouse and the Moselle, and progressed south «f Verdun and the Mctz Road. "The German offensive has been definitely stopped." FRENCH LOSSES AT LILLE. Received 10, 10.0 p.m. Copenhagen, October Id. A German headquarters' messag.' states that 4500 French prisoners were I taken at LiUe.

BARGES AS HOSPITALS. Times and Sydney Sun Services. Received 16, 6 p.m. London, October Ifl. The French Government is equipping river barges as hospitals for the wounded, thus enabling treatment to be given during the transport from the front.

NO HOVE AT THE CENTRE. WAITING FOR THE WINGS. Times and Sydney Sun Sen-iocs. Received 16, 0 p.m. London, October 10. Inactivity prevails at the centre of t!'<e fighting front in France. Tile trenches are placed so close that, in a Homeric manner, the troops are able to bandy insults and taunts. They realise that any attempt to carry the !positions by frontal attacks is dooniel to disaster. Both sides are waiting developments upon the wings.

A PRETTY STORY. HCXCER MAKES ENEMIES KIN". Times nnd Sydney Sun Services. Received 10, G p.m. London, October 10. Three French soldiers, bored by inactivity, agreed to emulate the "Throe Musketeers," and made an excursion to a small farm in the middle of the war zone to get a good menl. Several Germans, likewise adventuring, entered, and agreed to a truce, and the meal was enjoyed. Then thc French claimed the Germans aa prisoners, but the Germans protested that owing to their superior force, by the rules of thc game the French should be prisoners. After a polite wrangling, thc French led the Germans to the French. trenches, where they were given an inunenao reception.

A CHAMBER OF HORRORS, GERMAN AMBULANCE AND SHAMBLES. WOUNDED LEFT TO DIE; AND DEAD TO ROT. Received 16, 10.5 p.m. Paris, October 15. Maurice Darres, who visited Alsace, states that the French found the German ambulance at Raontclape in an appalling condition as the result of the doctors' intemperance. Rooms were full of wounded and mangled bodies, which had been dead for over a week. Some of the wounded had remained for several days with operations half finished, and one room contained stacks of corrupting dead.

CONNECTING RIVERS BY CANALS. 1 Times and Sydney Sun Services. Received 16, 6 p.m. London, October 16. The four gTeat rivers in the north of France are being connected by a network of canals. ALLIES REGAINING GROUND. CAPTURE OF ESTAIRES. Received 17, 1.5 a.m. Paris, October 10.

A communique issued on the loth at midnight records the capture of Estaires, and an advance non.i and east of Rheims, where the Allies bave gained two kilometres, and south of Saint Mihiel.

THE INEVITABLE EPIDEMIC. FROM LNSANITATION AND UNFIT FOOD. Received 17, 1.5 a.m. Paris, October MS. Professor Resscll, of.Munster, lias been sent to Metz to combat a threatening epidemic of diseases. He found an exceptionally large number of cases ol dysentery, inflammation of the lungs, and typhus. He declares that this is not surprising when the soldiers wore uninterruptedly for five days and nights in trenches half full of water, where it wa3 i impossible to send them fresh supplies of provisions, and the soldiers were living on the rations carried in their knapsacks. These rations finally became mouldy. The : horrors of the insanitary conditions were Increased by the fact that in many instances it was impossible to rcmore tho dead and wounded.

GERMAN VENGEANCE. TERRIBLE DESTRUCTION LX GERMAN TRENCHES. Received 17, 12.30 a.m. Rotterdam, October 10. The Daily Telegraph says the Germans are creating havoc in the coal mines, evidently wrecking their Aengeanco before retreating across the Belgian border. The entrances to three of the biggest mines in the Courriers district have been destroyed, and the machinery llown up.

French artillery swept position after position, their fire being terrific. Germans occupied a wide area, hut their batteries were ineffective. The French batteries, after half-an-hourt continuous battle, cleared every foot of the German trenches.

SUPERIOR FRENCH ARTILLERY. IN THE VERDUN DISTRICT. Received 17, 1 a.m. The Hague, October 16. iA correspondent named Ilelleven, recently with the Germans in Lorraine, states that the Go/mans a,-e dissatisfied with the progress made, and admit that the French artillery is jroving superior. The French seem to have dragged.hoavy guns out nf fortresses, and are now using , them in the open fold, wiierc thjy om 1 - runge the German guns by two kilometres. The Germans continually fiml Frenchmen in trees and in cellars, with pocket telephones, who inform Verdun of any change in tho yoiition of i\". Austrian and German guns. Though Lamdes and Romains have been taken, the guns of the forts at Parodies and Leonville still cover the gap.