BRITISH TROOPS IN FRONT LINE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVII, Issue 21531, 19 December 1939, Page 7

BRITISH TROOPS IN FRONT LINE

First Casualties Of War United Press Association—By Electrle Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, December 17. Tire headquarters of the British Expeditionary Force in France state that British front line troops suffered their first casualties in actual warfare. Several were wounded and some are dead following night patrols in “No Man’s Land." All were brought back. There has been increased patrol activity on the Western Front, with infantry and artillery action east of the Moselle. Further details are given of the big German raid on a French post east of the Moselle. The Germans attacked with two hundred men, under the protection of a box barrage and heavy machine-gun fire. Attacking early in the morning, they were repulsed by the French in hand-to-hand fighting, and retreated with heavy losses, leaving a quantity of material behind them. Two French soldiers, taken prisoner, later escaped and rejoined their comrades. "The post attacked energetically defended itself,” states a French communique. "The enemy succeeded in taking two prisoners, who managed to escape, profiting by the effect of defensive fire, and rejoined our line.” Further activity took place west of the Vosges Forest.