Belgium

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXX, Issue 68, 16 November 1914, Page 5

Belgium

THE FICHT AT DIXMUDE. : UmTEp, Press Association. • , , , Paris, November 14. An array corps commander ordered the Germans not tp return* alive if they failed *to take Dixmude. The conflict proved a,fight for the dykes. It was impossible, to .use the heavy guns, owing,ip a morass. The Germans cleverly surmounted, the difficulties, carrying . machine-guns in tho : inundated areas. During the battle both sides fought in the water. The earliest German onslaught resulted in the slaughter of 80 per cent, of the attackers, who were" unable to cross the flooded fields speedily. Finally the corpses formed a footway for the infantry, who followed. Many of the German wounded werja drowned. Some, realising that there was no chance of rescue, begged their comrades to kill them. After the capture of Dixmude the Germans, attempted to cross the Ys'er to the right and left of the town, but were repulsed; and their communications with Dixmude were endangered. The Allies then shelled Dixmude with shrapnel and high, explosive shells till the Germans 1 were threatened with extermination. A bayonet charge enabled the French marines to recapture the greater part of the town. The Germans have been holding a number of isolated farms amid the flooded region around Nieuport. Jhe Allies' infantry were unable to reach them, but the artillery finally forced the Germans to fly from the burning buildings and pitiless shell-fire.

BRAVE BRITISH OFFICER. AN IRON CROSS AND V.C. IN .ONE ACT. , (Received 8.30 a.m.) London, November 15. During the recent conflict Germans emerged from the trenches to rescue a comrade, but British fire killed them before the action was observed. A British officer then went to the Je--man's aid, and was in turn fired on by the Germans till the action ~»as noticed. The Britisher was wounded, but he carried the German into the enemy's lines, and the latter cheered. A German officer decorated the Britisher with the Iron Cross, ,and he returned to his own lines. Subsequently he was recommended for the Victoria CrosSj but succumbed to his wounds.

GENERAL. • Amsterdam, November 14. An aviator dropped two bombs, and set fire to the Bruges petrol tanks. The'Germans are preparing to blowup a culvert under the Bruges sluice / canah thereby inundating a stretch of country. There are signs that Germans have been instructed to, refrain from outf rages against Belgians. Several soldiers demanded money from a farmer. He informed the authorities, with the result that three o r four men were sentenced to death.