FIERCEST BOTH OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2780, 26 May 1916, Page 5

FIERCEST BOTH OF THE WAR

FORT DOUAUMONT RETAKEN TERRIFIC BLAST' OF ARTILLERY ' THE- AUSTRIAN BLOW SUCCESSFUL RETIREMENT OF ' ITALIAN LINE , As day follows day the conflict at Verdun voces-fiercer and fiercer. This tremendous battle lias developed into the fiercest ,of the whole war, and the daily toll in human lives is' simply frightful. To-day Fort Douaumont is 110 more. It is a lieap of blackencd -ruins, and as such has been reoccupied by- the Gt-rmans at a fearful cost The French' command tlie immediate approaches. The enemy has also advanced his line into the village of Cumieres, a devastated hamlet of some forty houses, and there also the cost to the Germans has been heavy. In the words of a French ofiicer: "The German- General has either taken leave of his senses or hopes for great things. Vivid pictures of the grim sstruggle are-given in the reports today. On the British front thero ia no material change in the situation in the Viniy Heights. The news from the Austro-Italian front shows that the Italian withdrawal of the front lino to prepared positions lower, down is being successfully effected. An important success by the Italians in the ' Eastern Tyrol is the destruction of Fort Sicf, described as the key to the enemy's defences in that region. There are no material developments to report elsewhere, save in the message of hope froiu Johannesburg of an early culmination of Smuts's campaign in East Africa.