FIGHTING IN BELGIUM.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 716, 28 October 1914, Page 5

FIGHTING IN BELGIUM.

! BATTLE OF DIXMUNDE. ENEMY'S DESPERATE EFFORTS ENDEAVOUR TO REACH COAST. London, Monday. Mr Aehmead BDrtlett, the war correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, and Mr Philip Gibbn, of the Daily Chronhicle, penetrated to Dixmundts and witnessed the fighting on Wednesday They state that it was one of the bloodiest engagements in the war. The Allies' pressure on Von Kluck's right wing will force all the German armies to retreat through the Ardennes or the gap at Longuy, Bouthwest of Luxemburg, hence th'o enemy's desperate effort to cross the Yser Canal and reach the coast and Calais.

The view from the tower of Fumes Church on Wednesday revealed the whole countryside a mass of burning villages. Approaching the firing line along every road was a continuous stream of motor care. Hundreds of private carß packed under h medical officer were ready to go to any spot for the wounded whenever a motor cyclist rode up and indicated the place. Everywhere shells were screaming as the big German howitzers, nick-named Jock Johnsons, threw down houses and churches. The guns of an entire German Army Corps were concentrated at Dixmunde Few combatants were visible, but the German fire was terrific. Little groups of peasants were compelled at great risk to eocape from cellars, where they had been taking refuge, and which collapsed. Hundreds of mangled wounded lay unattended on the roads leading to Dixmunde. One howitzer ahull burst in the midst of a Belgian battery. All the six horses and the gun were blown up, the mangled heap resembling a gigantic butcher' scart. A gunner was completely cut in two by a bar of steel. l ,; our other horses were wounded and fell dead a few yards off. Not a house in Dixmunde escaped. The Hotel Da Villa waa riddled with shell?. The churches are blazing ruin. The German made a final attack at dusk when they hoped to cut their way to Dunkirk. The Belgian batteries were at last able to open a terrible and sustained fire on the German infantry, who were trying to turn to Dixmundo from the souUi through the village of Saint JaquoeCapelle. The village was 'the scene of a violent infantry combat. * Fretch reserves for the time were unable ,to reach Saint Jacqudes, it being inpossible to pass through Dixmunde. which was blazing. The Germars carged with the bayonets. The Belgians and French answered with cries- of ".la Ja" and with cheers. When the cries died away the Germans had retreated. The night was lit up with the vad furnace of Dix munde, and the small furnace of Saint Jacque?. Berlin messages claim that after heavy fighting the Germans crosßed the Yser.