THE FRENCH FRONT

Nelson Evening Mail, 22 September 1916, Page 5

THE FRENCH FRONT

DESPERATE GERMAN. COUNTER- , ATTACKS-' BEATEN BACK BY THE FRENCH. (Renter's Telegrams > PARIS, Sept. 2i. A communique states that north of th 6 Somme the Germans made a great effort to recover the lost positions. The ibattle lasted from nine o'clock in the morning till nightfall. ; Successive waves of enemy -masses were crushed by machine gun and artillery fire, and sometimes with the bayo- , net. The French retained the whole of the ground. The Germans attacked on a front of five kilometres, from Le Priez farm to the south of Abbe Wood'. The attacking masses were on each occasion preceded by a furious cannonade. The French magnificently resisted all assaults and repulsed the enemy by a crossfire of machine guns and artillery. They everywhere maintained their positions. The fighting was fiercest in the vicinity of Le Priez Farm, in the region of Bouchavesnes. Four waves of assaults from Le Priez farm were successively broken Iby gunfire, and the enemy masses were seen to disintegrate in disorder behind the Tidge, leaving the ground covered with corpses. The Germans in the Bouchavesnes sector, after several sanguinary defeats, succeeded at one o'clock in the afternoon in gaining a lodsrment in the northeastern part of the village, but they were driven out with the bayonet "by irresistible counter-attacks. The enemy's losses were everywhere very great. GERMAN STAFF INSTRUCTIONS FOUND ON PRISONERS. (Australian and N.Z. CaJble Association.) PARIS, Sept. 21. A confidential document found on a Somme prisoner, signed by the Chief of Staff of the Third toman Army, dated the 14th inst., states that it is certain that the Allies will make far more formidaible attacks. The present fighting is only a .prelude to more important operations, and it is therefore essential that all troops should remain at any cost to the last man rather than* concede ground. r>c Ticers unable to obtain such a promise from their men will be court-martialled. An official paper found on a German major who was taken prisoner refers to the "tanks." It says of the new engines that their cruelty equals their efficiency, and steps must ba taken to combat the monsters. \