FRANCE & BELGIUM

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 144712, 22 June 1915, Page 3

FRANCE & BELGIUM

THE TRENCH ADVANCE.. EFFECT OF BOMBARDMENT. PARIS, June «1. Official. —Wo gdvanced in the direction of Souchez, and an artillery struggle which continues is very violent. Villages north of Arras have been reduced to jumbled heaps of brick and mortar, and huge chasms lined with sandbags twist through the streets. Machine-guns arc hidden under cupolas of armoured steel, and there are blockhouses of sandbags and armour plate. Tile enoiny burrowed so deep that the bombardment lost much of its efficiency. The attacks were sustained by showers , of hand grenades and short and furious infantry rushes combined with a patient rounding up of the enemy overlooked in the first dash, who attempt to continue to light in an inner recess trcncli maze. The French nicknamed the Rural position “Hell’s Mouth.” It is a sheltered ravine on tile .south-east flank of Loretto, ami provides a natural stronghold bristling with subterranean forts ami redoubts. The French invested three sides, and then avalanches of metal, prepared for an attack on two skies, was pressed on until the forces converged. j The Hermans fought with the ferocity of cornered rats. Hiving to the steadily narrowing area of lire tiirir machineguns wiped out many ol their own men in places. The Germans took cover behind the piles of their own dead. The French are now swaimiug up the rugged western slopes of Hid TID, which is directly south-east of ,Souchez, but will soon be obliged to abandon the fortress which is defending the road from Lievin to Lens. The slowness of progress lias given the Hermans time to prepare a strong, second line at the Givenchy brickfield and Hill 110. east of the A'euviileGivonchy Hoad. Recent battles are proving the value of aerial torpedoes, which the French are able to regulate with great accuracy. The French Chamber has authorised the burning of unidentified and tho burying of identified soldiers’ bodies.