ARTILLERY DUEL AT ZEEBRUGGE

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2429, 7 April 1915, Page 5

ARTILLERY DUEL AT ZEEBRUGGE

BRITISH SQUADRON UNDER FIRE AIR RAIDS IN THE WESTERN THEATRE Amsterdam, April 5. There was a vigorous cannonade from Zeebrugge on. Friday last, tie British ships replying. THREE LINES OF TRENCHES CAPTURED (Pec. 'April 6, 9.45 p.m.) Paris, April 6. Official.—"AVo hare captured three successive lines of trenches south-east of Saint Miliiel, "and gained a footing on the enemy's works north-east of Regnicville (in tho.Woevre). ['.the High Commissioner's message is to the same effect.] DESPERATE STRUGGLE IN THE CHAMPAGNE DISTRICT THREE WEEKS OF TRENCH MELEES, (Rec. April 6, 9.45 p.m.) London, April 6. The "Daily Chronicle" states that.an almost continuous battle has raged iii the Champagne district for three weeks.. The French are taking the offensive, and tlio fighting has been most violent north of Mesnil les Hurlus.. Nothing of Mesnil remains but a heap of ruins. A perfect tempest of fire swept the ground for nearly a month, and there is not a yard that has not been ploughed by shells. There have been terrible struggles in the enemy's trenches, and the melees are indescribable. Without room to fire the riflemen fought with unfixed bayonets, pickaxes, iron bars, arid their bare fists. Tho .French tenaciously hold their ground. "One is apt to think," writes a British officer with tho French Army, "that the trenches are really a line which is broken once the trench is captured. In reality the trench which one sees is only the front face of a work resembling a small fort, a regular nest of bomb-proof shelters, machine-gun emplacements, and deep communicating trenches; it is this system of. forts, with the'trenches connecting them, which is known as the enemy's front line of defence. This line is succeeded by others of Bimilar construction, although' possibly less highly developed. The piece or trench attacked may -be chosen because the lire from it is particularly annoying to our own line, because its capture will make it difficult for the enemy to hold on to some other bit, or merely because it is the easiest to.'assault. But the advantage gained by taking a trench is that you make the enemy come out of their trenches and fijjht to get it back. Nothing would suit them better than to be able to sit quiet in their trenches, while they collect all the reserves they can for use iu sbme ether-part of the line; and this is just what they must be prevented from doing. And—to their credit be it said—they have never failed to put in counter-attacks, sometimes for several days in succession, to regain lost trenches. Sometimes our allies have in the end been foroed back to their original line, occasionally even behind it; but this does not lessen the satisfaction of having given the enemy a- good shaking up, brought them out into the open, and inflicted heavy losses." OFFICIAL REPORT ON BRITISH AIR RAIDS HEAVY SCORE AGAINST THE ENEMY. Paris, April 5. A communique states: "The_ War Office .has precise informatfon regard--ing the results of the British .air raid on March 24. The airship shed at Berghen, Saint Agathe, was seriously damaged; also an airship that was inside. The naval construction yards at- Hoboken were' set 011 fire, two submarines 'destroyed, and a third damaged, while forty German workmen were killed and sixty-two wounded." [A message to the same effect has been received from the High Commissioner.] _ TAUBE RAIDER BROUGHT TO EARTH. Paris, 'April 5. 'A Taube aeroplane dropped fourteen bombs near Chalons fruitlessly. Two French aviators pursued and brought down the Taube, the crew of which were taken prisoners. ENEMY'S DREADNOUGHTS ACTIVE IN THE BALTIC . . , Copenhagen, April 5. . Large German Dreadnoughts are active in the Baltic.