THE WESTERN FRONT.

Hokitika Guardian, 14 December 1917, Page 2

THE WESTERN FRONT.

AN AUTHORITATIVE RESUME. AROUND CAMBRAI. (AUSTRALIAN & N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION] LONDON, Dee. 12th. A high military authority, reviewing the situation s ays the readjustment, at Cambrai was accomplished with a considerable area in our favour. It is too early yet to give tho reasons why our old front gave way where at did. There has been a good deal of criticism about the want. of co-ordination. When the Cambrai battle started the enemy had a number of divisions free owing to the Russian situation. Cambra i was attacked :by these lorces, and benefited Italy. What was that but co-ordinating ? Regarding Palestine, he emphasised that the real difficulty of the campaign was not_ fighting the Turks; but the conquest of the desert by the troops at Gaza and Jerusalem. Drinking water was brought from Egypt over 150 miles of deser*. In Italy the enemy gained little ground of any importance. A GERMAN ATTACK. (United Service Telegrams). LONDON December 12. Prince Rupprecht’s apparent aim this morning was to pierce General Byng’s lines near Bullecourt. and Strike) the British holding ‘the new Cambrai battlefront in the rear. The attacks seems to have been arrested befor the Bavarians occupied more than a few hundred yards of the British trenches The German bombardment was very heavy, proving the great concentration of guns. A HEAVY ATTACK. BRITISH LINES DENTED. LONDON Docomher 12. Mr. Phillip Oibbs writes: The enemy attack eastward of Bullecourt on a quarter of a mile front intended to bite off a section of ground jutting beyond our line from the quadrillateral position in the old system of German trenches opposite Hiencourt, in the neighbourhood of the earthworks. The enemy, this morning bombarded on a much wider front on each side of the projecting ■nose, and boxed in the quadrillateral, especially the latter’s base, with a fierce continued barrage, with A view to isol- j ating us from the lines adjoining and cutting off the supporting troops. The assaulting battalions belonged to the 16th. Bavarian Division, and they had Saxons behind in readiness )according to prisoners’ statements) to 1 pnss beyond the first waves of the assault, and break through our rearguard as soon as the first objective was gained. The larger plan failed under the weight of artillery fire, and the enemy suffered heavy casualties. He however ; dented in the out line of our promintory ,and for the time being, holding 1 part thereof .

HAIG’S OPERATIONS. HEAVY ATTACKS REPULSED. [AUSTRALIAN & N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION & REUTER. ] (Received This Dav at 10.15. :» m. i''! LONDON, Dec. 13. General Sir Douglas Haig reports that the accounts of yesterday’* fighting show that the enemy, after a heavy preparation, attacked from the north our positions on the JTindenburg line, eastward of Bullecourt; also on a wider fronts from the east-north-east, against an angle of our four trench lines south of Reincourt and Los Gagnicourt. AVe repulsed both, inflicting heavy losses. The enemy subsequently attacked on the latter front, penetrating the obliterated trenches, at the apex of the angle. We killed or prisonered a few Germans reaching the trenches. Elsewhere there was local fighting all day. A Tho enemy obtained a foothold, on a small portion of a trench, without effecting a change of the situation. We repulsed raiders south-west of La Bassee, and inflicted casualties as the result of patrol encounters eastward of Zonnebeke.