Belgium

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXX, Issue 51, 27 October 1914, Page 5

Belgium

WATER-FILLED TRENCHES. United Press Association. London,' October 24. A captured Bavarian officer states that when the Allies opened the sluices at Dixmunde, his regiment was compelled to light in trenches up to their hips in water for many hours. BELGIAN HEROES FIGHT LIKE DEMONS. ■ m London, October 25. During a violent action in the vicinity of Nieuport, the Belgians, with backs to the wall, fought like veritable demons. Though outnumbered, and possessing inferior artillery, they simply refused to acknowledge defeat, and repulsed every attack with heavy losses until the arrival of the British monitors. The British officers were surprised that they were able to hold the positions. The King was moving about the lines/ comforting the wounded and cheering the downhearted, when a shell fell close to the Monarch. In the trenches, the soldiers,, realising His Majesty’s peril, fought with new valor.

ONE OF THE BLOODIEST BATTLES

A GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION.

London, October 26. Mr Ashmead Bartlett and Mr Philip Gibbs, war correspondents, penetrated to Dixmunde, and witnessed the fighting on Wednesday. They state that it was one of the bloodiest engagements of the war. The Allies’ pressure on General Von Kluck’s right will force all the German armies to retreat through the .on the gap of liOngwy, hence the desperate effort to cross the Yser Cahal and reach the coast at Calais. The view from the tower of the Fumes Church on Wednesday revealed the whole countryside a mass of burning villages. Approaching the firing line °by every road was a continuous stream of motor cars, and hundreds of private cars, packed, and under a medical officer, ready to go to »ny spot for wounded when a motor cyclist rode up and indicated the place. Everywhere shells were screaming, as the big German howitzers, nicknamed “Jack Johnsons,” threw down houses and churches. The guns of the entire German Army

Corps were concentrated on Dixmunde. Few combatants were visible,, but the Gorman fire was terrible. Little groups <X peasants were compelled to risk escape when the cellars where they had been taking refuge collapsed. Hundreds of mangled and wounded lay unattended on the roads leading to Dixmunde. One howitzer shell burst in the midst of a Belgian battery, and all the six horses and one gun were blown into a mangled heap, resembling a gigantic butcher’s cart. The gunner was completely cut in two by a bar of steel. Four other horses were wounded, and fell dead a few yards off. Not a house in Dixmunde escaped. The Hotel De Ville was riddled with shells, and the church was a blazing ruin. The Germans 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 fire on the German infantry, who were trying to turn Dixmunde

from the south through the villages of Saint Jacques and Capello. The village was the scene of a violent infantry combat. The French Reserves for the time were unable to reach Saint Jacques, and it was impossible to pass through blazing Dixmunde. The Germans charged with the bayonet, and the Belgians and French answered with cades of “Ja-Ja!” .

When the cheers and cries died away the Germans retreated, and darkness fell, save for the red furnace of Dixmunde and the small furnace of Saint Jacques. FIGHTING ON LAND AND SEA. London, Ocober 2b. A war correspondent, detailing the naval light, particularly the Trafalgar Day fight between Nieuport and Middlekerke, says that the Germans from Antwerp on Tuesday were reinforced by a fresh corps from Brussels, and they made furious day and night attacks. The Germans renewed their efforts on Trafalgar Day. The FrancoBritish squadron was in action for twelve hours, and shelled the German entrenchments three miles inland. Some of the guns discharged fourteen projectiles a minute. The fire of the squadron destroyed a German bridging train, collected in order to force the passage of the Yser. The enemy’s artillery attempted to get the range of the battleships, but aeroplanes and dropping smoke-balls proved ineffective. While the fleet was cannonading the German flank, the Allies’ infantry were attacking in front, and the Germans were finally compelled to evacuate Nieuport. The Allies’ scouts did magnificent work, picking up each of the enemy’s defensive positions, and enabling the fleet to keep pace with the German retirement.

During the retreat from Middlekerke sometliing approaching a panic seized the German army. The German officials at Ostend hurriedly prepared to evacuate the city. Stores, ammunition, and reserve artillery were sent to Bruges. There was terrible confusion in the reception and treatment of the wounded. Meanwhile, the British cavalry did dashing work in the Roulers-Ypres district. Berlin messages claim that after heavy fighting the Germans crossed the Yser, WORK OF THE BELGIAN ENGINEERS AT ANTWERP. MILLIONS’ WORTH OF STORES DESTROYED. United Press Association.; (Received 8.50 a.m.) London, October 26. As it was impossible to clear the cold stores at Antwerp, the Belgian engineers destroyed the refrigerating machinery, leaving hundreds of thousands of carcases to putrify. They sank sixty 1 lighters with grain, blew up the lock gates at the entrance to the docks and destroyed the army stores worth four million sterling. THE LONGEST CHARGE ON RECORD. BRITISH WITH THE BAYONET. (Received 8.50 a.m.) Paris, October 26. Details from the Ville Le Chapolle sliow that British artillery bombarded the German position from dawn til! three o’clock. A bayonet charge was then ordered, and the British gleefully (jiiitted the trenches and advanced cautiously. for a mile, using all possible cover. After annihilating the Germans in two lines of entrenchments with little loss, they made a short halt; then followed a splendid final dash to the main position, and they got the Germans on the run. The trenches wore full of dead. The charge was maintained for six miles, which is, perhaps, the longest on record. The Germans lost 6000 killed. The British proved immeasurably superior in the open field.

SUNDAY’S FIGHTING IN NORTH WEST FRANCE.

ENEMY'S HEAVY LOSSES

United I’hehs Association (Received 9.2 U a.in )

Paris, October -li

A communique issued on the tfoth at midnight states: A violent battle is proceeding between Nienport and The I jV s. The Germans crossed the \ ser lie tween Nienport and Dixmnde. Ihe enemy’s attacks westward and southwards of Lille were repulsed. Our troops advanced slightly to the northwest "of Soissons, and also in the Omiiniie district. Onr heavy artillery tiro in the, Woevre commands the Thian-court-Honrsard-Bainville read, which is one of the enemy’s principal lines of communication towards St. Mihiel. !t is reported, that an entire German infantry regiment was annihilated in the Argonne during the operations in the woods northwards of La C'halade. The enemy suffered very grave losses in northern France and on the coast of Belgium. Fifteen hundred Gorman corpses were found in one limited area. Six hundred were taken, prisoners on Saturday. Xienport.—A small • watering-place, the suburb of Xienport, Bains, attracting the hulk of the patronage. In days gone by, however, Xienport was a considerable seaport, serving the whole of the Ypres district, and it still has a lighthouse, built as long ago as 1259. The Yser runs, into the sea near by, with its hanks protected and its channel deepened to admit barges. Xienport, like every other Belgian town, has had its experience of war and in olden times it was strongly fortified, enduring, on one occasion a 1‘ renfih siege lasting a year.