VERDUN.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 June 1916, Page 5

VERDUN.

• ' ' -i ' A COSTLY GLOWS, ■ft;' . BY NEW GERMAN FORCES. /! FRENCH HOLD THEIR LINES. (Paris, May 31. A semi-official statement says that the enemy's powerful general operations against the whole Mort Homme-Cumieres . region were .followed on Monday afternoon. i)y a double Moody defeat at Mort Eomnie and Hill 304. The Germans succeeded in taking, doubtless temporarily, •ome portions of the first line trenches toy throwing a whole division on a twomile front. The participation in this action of • fresh troops drawn from another portion of the Western front proves that exhaustion of- the reserves compels the ~ enemy to deplete quiet sectors. The French look to the final result of these costly blows with absolute confidence. A communique states:—There was fierce fighting day and night from Mort Homme to the Meuse. After a bombardment of unprecedented violence for two days the enemy repeated his concentric < attacks by large effectives against the trenches east of Mort Homme and about Ciameres, but we everywhere repulsed • the .enemy, inflicting heavy losses; but south of Caurettes Wood we evacuated , the. first line trenches which the foomHrdment hajl levelled. The Germans attacked south of Cumieres from both sides of the viltyge, at .first rolling us back in the direction of Chattancoinrt station. Strong counterattacks drove the enemy back to the outskirts of the village. Some German detachments, who crept along the Meuse in the fog, got near the station, but were annihilated. The enemy, after an intense artillery preparation, invaded the trenches east, of Seppois, 'but a counterAttack quickly drove them back. ,