BATTLE OF SOISSONS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 705, 19 September 1914, Page 5

BATTLE OF SOISSONS.

FOUR DAYS' FIGHTING. ALLIES CARRY POSITION. »na i London, Thursday., The battle around Soiasons lasted four days. The Allies found the rivers swollen with rains, and it was necessary to build pontoons under a withering fire. The French and British on Sunday morning brought up gunß, and a violent artillery duel opened. The pontoons were brought into position and launched, and the Allies began to cross. They won the heights at sunset, the Germans having gained a 12 hours' respite. Similar desperate fighting took place at half-a-dozen other poßte, where the French and British threw pontoons across the Aisne to replace bridges which the French destroy£d during tho retreat a fortnight earlier. The British gained the northern bank in several places on Sunday, but the German guns got the range, and forced the British to withdraw on 1 Monday. During Monday evening the Allies brought up heavier cannon, which changed the aapsct of the battle, and forced several German batteries to retire. The rest of the siege guns were hidcfen in woods, covering the hills overlooking the river. Hitherto it had been impossible to locate them. When the British succeeded in getting a battery a:rosa the river the Germans in the wood were nqble to hit it. Hence they were lorce? to seek a new position.