France.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXX, Issue 22, 14 September 1914, Page 5

France.

;CERMANS ABANDON QUANTITIES i OF MUNITIONS. [ | [By Electric Telegram—Copyright] [United Press Association.] Paris, September 12. Official.—The German right abandoned great quantities of munitions, iThe centre has given way along tile ;entire front from Sezanne to Revigny.

—»_ "WE BADLY NEED HOR&ES AND

SUPPLIES."

London, September 11

The following wireless to Berlin was intercepted: "We badly need horses and supplies^'"

DEFEATED AND DEMORALISED AND FAIRLY ON THE RUN.

London, September 12

j Mr Maxwell telegraphs to the Daih ;Telegraph: "The Germans are fairly on the run, utterly routed, the centre defeated and demoralised, and both Hanks retreating along the roads ovei which they marched in triumph a week ago. The remnant of their cavalry han been destroyed."

REMARKABLE LOW PERCENTAGE OF MORTALITY.

Paris,'September 12

French military doctors report that only 2 per cent, of the war casualties are killed outright.

THE BATTLE OF MEAUX.

"A VERITABLE HELL UPON

EARTHI"

Paris, September 12

A Zouave officer states: "For four days previous to September 7th the Zouaves were engaged in clearing the Germans from all the villages on the left bank of the Ourcq. Unfortunate ly, the heavy English artillery, which would have smashed the enemy, had not yet arrived. However, we were equal to the preliminary task, and were heartened by General Pau's conversion of the enemy's big ammunition convov into a fireworks display. We fought from village to village, hand to hand, and the Moroccans fought like demons with their bayonet work. The Germans fired villages, and the rolling columns of smoke and pillars of fire made a veritable hell upon earth. Our gunners were shelling th<3 Germans from pillar to post, strewing the ground with dead. Across and among these dead bodies we had to charge. They lay about in heaps of bleeding flesh.

"The enemy's quickfirers were marvellous. They manoeuvred them cleverly, and we hadn't all our own way. It was almost impossible to stand against it, and we had to retire aftei every rush for about 251 metres. Then, quick as lightning, the Germans got the mitrailleuses across the ground we had yielded, and waited our next rush. The Zouaves were steady, in spite of heavy losses, but the enemy's quickfirers were more effective than ours: Presently the enemy's aeroplane began to drop bombs, and guided the German shell fire. We were without water for four days, and troops and horses suffered greatly. Under cover of darkness the Germans collected their dead, covered them with straw and parraffin, and incinerated the bodies. "At midday on the 7th the English artillery came up. They handled their guns -as if on the parade ground, though the German shell fire was hot. The screams of dying horse,-, and men, joined with the shrieks of the shells, were like an inferno. Gradually the German right rolled hack, exhausted and demoralised."

GENERAL NEWS.

London, September 12

The Daily Express' Paris correspondent states that during the fighting with t.lje Prussian Guard on Wednesday the British completely wiped out the Jaeger Regiment of 3000. Renter says the British played the leading role. They drove back General von Eluck's army, and then advanced to meot the Germans by forced marches. They took a few hours' sleep, and pursued the enemy up the Marne Valley with bull-dog tenacity. Count Bernstorff Gildenstein has written to his family, stating that all his Mecklenburg cavalry regiment, except four, have been killed in the North of France. The Chronicle's Bordeaux correspondent reports that the Germans have exhausted causing the shortage of ammunition. Paris, September 12.

The German army corps reported yesterday to have been cut off: in the Senlis triangle sacked deserted houses at Nanteuil, and also many villages. It is reported that the French occupied Soissons on Saturday evening.