ATTACK ON LENS

Waikato Times, Volume 88, Issue 13462, 17 April 1917, Page 5

ATTACK ON LENS

A GRAPHIC DESCBIPTIv Nl

ENEMY GUNNERS NONPLUSSED.

(Australian and N.Z. Cable Assn.) Received April 17, 12,43 a.m.

LONDON, April 16.

Correspondents, give a graphic description of the attack on Lens. It was evident on Friday that the enemy was quitting the town with the uttnost speed, but Saturday's event* showed that he still maintained a ring of strong machine-gun redoubts.. Consequently, when the attackers fron* the south appeared in, a street near Bois-de-Riau-mont the utmost caution was-necessary. They wriggled through back gardensuntil they reaehed another street behind the wood,, which they attacked from the north. The German machinegunners were nonplussed. The British meanwhile posted machine-guns, which enabled them to snipe entire crews from new vantage points The enemy on Sunday threw his entire weight on the inner defence in a desperate hope of checking the advance until the guns and stores were removed and.the destruction of the. mines completed. Everywhere the same methods were used, the object sought being to hamper the pursuit. Further south the Pioneers exploded craters on the roads to the eastward, blocking the streets with the debris of the houses;