FRENCH HOLD EASTERN SLOPES OF VOSGES.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2237, 25 August 1914, Page 5

FRENCH HOLD EASTERN SLOPES OF VOSGES.

HEAVY LOSSES ON BOTH SIDES. GERMANS RETIRE FROM LONGWY AND BRIEY. London, August 23. French reports confirm the recent fighting which secures the virtual occupation of the eastern face of the Vosgos Mountains from Mount Donon, which lies between Strassburg and- Luueville, to Ballon d'Alsace, near Belfort, and fifty-five miles south as the crow flies. Renter's Paris correspondent states that the French losses in the Vosge9 during the- last three days were very heavy, and the German indisputably as great. ' , An official statement says the French left a small neutral ssotra inside the frontier, wheretho Germans advanced to the crests, requiring dislodgement. The French captured the* passes of the Hohneck and tho Schlucht, leading down to Colmar. Their difficulties are greater in the central section, where the Germans are entrenched. Tho French got round by the Urbeis and Saales Passes leading down to Schlattstadt, and shelled 'the German rear. This proved costly, especially at Saales, but it paved tho way for the occupation of Mount Donon and Saales, opened up the Breusch Valley, which rims down to Strassburg. ' ■• • ' . GERMAN SUCCESS IN ALSACE EXAGGERATED. ■ Paris, August 23. It is officially stated that German official telegrams report that the reverse in Lorraine on Thursday .was transformed into a rout on Friday, in which the French lost ten thousand prisoners and fifty gunß. , This is ridiculous exaggeration. Tho German success in Lorraine is no greater than the French achieved in Alsace. The ■ guns captured were certainly fewer, the total killed, wounded, prisoners, and missing did not nearly amount to ten thousand. No French detachments crossed the Meurthc, all remain at the fort at Nancy.' A. momentary'reverse was only an episode in a strugglo which nvust. necessarily entail numerous episodes in the ebb and flow. GERMANS EVACUATE LCTNGWY AND BRIEY. ' ' . (Rec. August 24, 11.30 p.m.) _ Paris, August 24. The Germans have evacuated the whole of' the region near Longwy and Brioy, in France, near tho Luxemburg frontier.' The Gorman attempt to recapture Schirmeck, in the valley of the Breusch, has failed. " '