SQUEEZED INTO A MASSED FRONT

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2494, 22 June 1915, Page 5

SQUEEZED INTO A MASSED FRONT

GERMANS POUNDED BY FRENCH ARTILLERY WHOLE RANKS WIPED OUT (By Telegraph —Press Absh.—Copyright.) London,' June 20. The Dunkirk correspondent of tho Central News Agency states that the French -offensive from Loretto to Neuville squeezed 150,000 Germans into a front of four and a-half miles, where they wer.e being sacrificed in a despairing effort to save tlio remnants of the German defensive system. Tho French artillery wiped out whole ranks of tho enemy, and heavy artillery, mortars, grenades, and aeriaj torpedoes wero utilised almost continuously. The bombardment was automatically followed by bayonet charges, when the Germans were incapable of resisting. A single mine shaft had 250 German defenders, of which number 200 wore wiped out and the rest made prisoners. s , Tho stream at Souchez village was blocked wit'n Gorman dead. The German heavy artillery continues its bombardment, the officers ordering an advance, which is costly. One shell struck the village of Marcqui, where 150 inen were billeted. The shell killed eighty-nine. THE FRENCH ATTACK ON "HELL'S MOUTH " DESPERATE RESISTANCE OF THE GERMANS. (Rec. Juno 21, 10.15 p.m.) Paris, June 21. The villages north of Arras have been reduced to jumbled heaps of brick and mortar. Huge chasms, lined with sandbags, twist through tho streets with machine-guns hidden under cupolas of armoured steel, and blockhouses of sandbags and armoured plate. The enemy had burrowed so deep that the bombardment lost much of its efficiency The attacks are sustained by showers of hand-grenades, and short, furious, and determined infantry rushes, combined with tho patient rounding up of enemy troops who were overlooked in tho first dash, and who now attempt to continue tho fight in the inner recoss -of the trench maze. Tho French have nick-named the Fond de Buval position "Hell's Mouth." It is a sheltered ravine on the south-east flank of Lorette, and a natural stronghold, bristling with subtorranean forts and redoubts. The French invested it on three sides, and then avalanches of metal prepared the way for au attack on two sides, which was pressed on until the forces converged". The 1 Germans fought with tho ferocity of cornered rats, and owing to tho steadify narrowing area of the firo their machine-guns wiped out many" of their own men in places. The Germans took cover behind piles of thoir own de-ul. The French are now swarming up tho rugged western slopes of Hill 119, which lies direct-lv south-east of Souchez, and the enem.T will sno-\ bo obliged to abandon the fortress by which tlioy are defending tho road to Lie-,'in and Lens. - . The slowness of our progress has given the Germans time to prepare a strong second-line at tho Givenchy brickfield, and Hill 140, east of the Neu-ville-Givenchy Boad. . Recent battles are proving tho value of aerial torpedoes, which tho French are able to regulate with groat accuracy. ! — THE BRITISH ATTACK ON LA BASSEE "OUR TEETH-IN A BULLDOG GRIP." \ CRec. Juno 21, 11.25 p.m.) London, June 21. A British officer, in a letter describing the assault at La Bassce, writes "The artillery poured a tempest of shells into the Givonchy brickfields. You cculd soe a high explosive shell crash into a square fort like a, block brick, halted solid, watch the great cloud of smoke roll away, and expect to see the brickstack shattered; but you find hardly a dent-. Nevertheless experience tells you that tbe defenders are suffering from the fragments of shells and showors of broken bricks, which aro breaking thoir Indies and shattering their nerves. "This bombardment con tinned day and night, tho British, meanwhile, enjoying tlio advantage of tho attackers, and able to rest in well-covered positions until tho moment for the advance, whilo tho Germans (lid not know when or where the attack would fall. "Tho first infantry rush was at 0 o'clock in the evening, and inside of tho hour tho front line of trenches had boon taken, and most of tho defenders killed. The fight continued in darkness, which was lit up by a constant succession of flares, while the Germans hurried up reinforcements by trains and motors. We, however, have got our toetb in a bulldog grip, which will not come away without tearing out a piece." HIGH COMMISSIONER'S HKPOHT. Tho High Commissioner report*:— London, .Time 91, 1.50 a.m. "In the seotor north of Arras tho Fronch aro masters of Fond da Bural ("Buval Bottom"). , . , . , . „ ' "An attack in tb& 4ir«ctisn of SouoHsfi tciaiiHca lu ah ox 2.atKrt i of .i mild.

"lii t'ho Argonno a violent attack by the enemy lias boon repulsed and some prisoners taken. _ "On tlio heights of the Jleuse two of the enemy's lines were earned and 70 prisoners captured. "TIIO French havo arrived near Roillon, in Lorrcljie. a centre of resistance. "Tlio French offensive in the valley of 1110 Feeht continues, to progress." GERMAN OFFICIAL COMMUNIQUE. London, Juno 20. A Berlin rommmiinue states: North of La Basses Canal and north of Arras wo bloodily repulsed several partial attacks. GERMANY CALLING OUT MORE MEX. (Rec. June 21, 10.15 p.m.) Rotterdam, June 21. It is understood that Germany is calling out a further four thousand voim" men, first-class material, mostly railway workers.