AMBUSHES on western front

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20068, 14 October 1939, Page 7

AMBUSHES on western front

german attacks again repelled FRENCH TRIBUTES TO BRITISH TROOPS DISCIPLINE AND FAITH IN CAUSE (Reed. October 13, 3 p.ra.) LONDON, October 12. Paris messages quote official dispatches which indicate that the fighting on the Western Front ft emerging from the advance-guard stage into front-line action. No-man s land is rapidly turning into mud and torn into shell holes. Some close fighting is occurring as the Germans are. attacking more -strongly, but the French still command the initiative. A night communique states: “There has been activity amongst our advance units, particularly south from Saarbrueken. Both sides set ambushes. The Paris correspondent of the British United Press states that the chief engagement occurred in the Moselle corridor. Using automatic guns and hand grenades strong ■ Gciunan detachments advanced right up to the French, positions but fell back in the face of withering fire. The Germans craAvled through the darkness to the barbed-wire defences. The French machine-gunned and attacked the enemy with hand grenades from a distance of a few feet. The Germans came over in successive waves, but retreated, leaving a considerable number of dead. Perfection of Morale The following arc a few ‘expressions of French observers * who paid a visit to the British troops in France. “After three days spent at British General Headquarters there is no doubt ; of the great qualities of our Allies—their sense of discipline. : their faith in the cause they arc serving, their quiet resolution and. above all, the perfection of their morale. » “In no spirit of bravado, with no flourish of trumpets, has this great British Army come to our shores. Tlis Majesty’s soldiers, like his French, comrades, wear an air of ; | cold resolution. They are men who have come to accomplish a necessary task.

“No army has ever been better equipped. No army has ever taken the field with such supplies of guns and ammunition. v. The general impression, after spending three days With the British Army is that the morale of our Allies is ready for any tiling. It is the morale of a United nation Which has put all its forces at the service/of war in the cause of justice, freedom and the peace of humanity.