GREAT BATTLE ON THE AISNE

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2260, 21 September 1914, Page 5

GREAT BATTLE ON THE AISNE

A CRUCIAL CONFLICT SUPREME ENCOUNTER OF THE CAMPAIGN By Telegraph-Fiees AfsooiaUon-Oopyrlßhl ■ : : (Roc. September 19, 3 p.m.) ■ •: Paris, September 19, morning. There is a consensus-of opinion that the Battle of the Aisne is one of the most important in the campaign. It is evidently not a rear-guard action, but a supreme encounter, closing the era of big operations/in France. The French General Staff consider that the Allies' frontal attack is developing under favourable' conditions. The German counter-attacks are being repulsed. The 'Allies' gains are necessarily slow, owing to the strength of the German fortified positions. The final success will probably be achieved by threatening communications rather than'by carrying • positions. Meanwhile'the German communications are not precarious; Some suppose that .while they hold Tergnier and I-aons they will have two lines of railway running ' across Luxemburg, and the Belgian railways via Mons and Saint Quentin. There waj furious fighting n Thursday on the British section of tLe line, and some famous regiments suffered sevorely, but performed their task unflinchingly, and occupied some advanced Gorman positions at terrible cost to the Germans.' The trehches north of Chalons were over three feet deep with splinter, screens every twenty yards, and* the resting-places in the trenches consist of-several parallel rows, flanked by others running at right angles with concealed machine guns. ' . "FIERCEST BATTLE YET FOUGHT."(Reo. September 19, 3 p.m.) • i Harls, September 19. A French officer states that the battle of the Aisne is the fiercest vet fought. It became general on the afternoon of September 14, and on the following day there was a ding-dong struggle. The Germans, who bad been awaiting reinforcements during the night,, made a furious attack on the extreme left, whero the British and French met furious onslaughts, and repulsed the Germans ten times. There were fearful German losses. The Germans continued the attempt to pierce the French lines, and hurled forward dense masses of troops in a supreme endeavour to check tho French. At dawn the French had gained some ground. • p There was on artillery duel on the following day, desperate infantry fighting recommencing on September 17, when the French threw the Germans, back ten kilometres (over six miles), capturing a number of machine guns. The Germans on Thursday finally evacuated Soissons, and fell back." All accounts agree that the famous Prussian Guards' corps was praotically blotted out at the Battles of 'the Marne and tho Aisne. ' An American Army officer, who was present, estimated the German dead, 'during the fighting which centred around Rebais and Champeiiois, between September 8 and September 12, at from fifteen to twenty thousand. A majority were bayonetted in the trenches, or in tho hand-to-hand fighting with the Turkos and Senegalese. / STRONG POSITION CARRIED BY ASSAULT. (Reo. September_ 20, 4 p.m.) i London, • September 19. Mr. William Maxwell, the "Daily Telegraph's" special correspondent, telegraphing from the neighbourhood of the Aisno regarding the fighting on Wednesday, states that a French officer, from tho liattlo line, narrates that the British and French on Tuesday surrounded a German Army Corps in a position so hopeless that a flag of truce was sent to demand its surrender. Tho offer was rejected, and the fight continued'with relentless vigour, many being killed and taken prisoners. Tho enemy is now making a desperate stand on the lino from the Noyon to the forest of the Argonno. . During their eight days'occupation of Reims the Germans strengthened the hilly country with an elaborate field work, enabling them to 'arrest tho Allies' pursuit. The latter, however, succeeded in forcing tho passage of the Aisno west of Reims, and on Tuesday the enemy's entrenched and fortified position was carried by assault, after two days of desperate struggle, in face of a terrible fire. Another report states that at. Acy, a regiment of French Territorials was outnumbered and forced to tako refuge in a large barn, and shut the gates. It fought to the last man. Guns battered the building to pieces, and fire added horror to the struggle,

ENEMY IN A PERILOUS POSITION, (Roc. September 20, 5.5 p.m.) Paris, September 18. Despite the severity of the Aisne battle, there is no anxiety in Paris. It is pointed out that the German right is very strongly placed, and difficult to locate. The German guns wero nevertheless obliged to retire at certain points. n • They are less favourably placed in other parts of the line, and the evacuation of Varennes indicates that the left is yielding. _ The German Army's position in general is perilous, with a fortified frontier ' at its left, and th© Belgians threatening its rear, where the lines of communication are quite inadequately protected,