ATTACKS ON BRITISH

Waikato Times, Volume 87, Issue 13270, 28 August 1916, Page 5

ATTACKS ON BRITISH

REPULSED WITH HEAVY LOSSES

(Australian and N.Z. Cable Assn.) Received August 2('i, 7 p.m. LONDON, August 26. S : r Douglas Haig reports: "The

enniy bombarded our front line of trenches on the greater portion of our front south of Ancre last night. They

have also attacked up this morning west of Guilleniont, between quarries on the Montauban-Gnillemont road.

The attack was repulsed. AYe have made further progress east and southwest of the -Aloquet farm, and have taken another 400 yds of trenches along the Courcelette-Thiopval road. The

importance that the enemy attaches to the Thiepval sector is shown by the great effort to recover ground that'we won at the Loipsic salient. He recently

effected a great concentration of guns in this area, and in support of last night's attacks he delivered an attack south of

he Thiepval village with the Prussian

Guards. The attack was pressed with great determination everywhere, but was

Repulsed With Heavy Losses.

The success of the defence against the attack was largely due to the gallantry of the Wiltshire and Worcestershire Regiments in the face of a heavy bombardment. The enemy attacked two points west of Tahure, in the Champagne district, and gained a footing in a small salient, but was bombed out. Several sharp attacks in the region of Thiaumont and Flgury, north of Verdun, were all repulsed. We repulsed an attack on our trenches westward of Guinchy, on Thursday: night. The enemy bombarded the recently-captured trenches westward of Guinchy and Melville Wood."

Received Xugust 27, 7 p.m

LONDON, August 27. The Daily Mail's correspondent in Picardy states: "The eight-mile fortress extending from Thiepval to Guinchy has a great bastion at either end. The British stormed tlfe outworks of both bastions on Thursday. Germany has concentrated, especially at Thiepval and Guillemont, enough men and guns to garrison 80 miles of trenches. The Germans . have hundreds of cannon, and, indeed, hundreds of batteries of all calibres. Their troops are not counted by the hundred or thousand or ten thousands, but by army corps. The intensity of the German efforts to pre. vent the bastions falling eaxne to a focus at Guillemont on Wednesday night. Vain and _ n „ * - < t d

Bloody Counter-Attacks made. The Germans have never previously dining the war period lust so many men in defensive fighting. The losses among the supports, equally with those of the troops engaged in the counter-attacks, were unpreeedentcdlv heavy. 1 hey were loreed, despite their machine-guns, to use more men and to eniplaee more and more guns in vulnerable positions. When we gain, as we are doing almost daily, some hundred yards of trenches at small loss to ourselves or a high enemy loss, we are defeating the enemy's supreme endeavour, to which he is applying all his skill and energy. He cannot do more, and we win all the time."