In the West.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 308, 29 December 1914, Page 5

In the West.

A SIEGE OF ANTWERP.

GERMAN DEFENCE PREPARA-

TICNS IN PROGRESS.

Dnitkd Press Association. (Received 8.30 a.m.) Amsterdam, December 28. Haudelsblad’s Antwerp correspondent states there arc 200,000 Germans in Antwerp, who are preparing to resist a siege, 3000 by day or night strengthening the fortifications.

BELGIANS ON THE OFFENSIVE.

SURRENDER OF 2000 GERMANS.

(Received 9.15 a.m.) Paris, December 28

The Belgian offensive culminated near Lombertzyde, where the left wing ; outflanked the Germans and the remainder kept the enemy busy. The final charge by the whole body of 3000 surprised the Germans, 2000 surrendering. The Belgians lost a few killed and 20 wounded.

THE FIGHT ON THE 21st.

STUBBORN BRITISH DEFENCE.

(Received 12.45 p.m.) London, December 29

An eye-witness, describing the fight on the 21st, says: The stand the British made was a gallant, stubborn defence under severe fire from three sides; finally they were ordered to retire, as the position had become precarious. The enemy’s success was short lived, as French reinforcements stormpd the trenches which were re-taken. The fight lasted all the afternoon. All night, in a perfect hurricane of rain and sleet, the enemy’s searchlight flares lit up the darkness. Friends and foes were in such close quarters that it was difficut to distinguish the respective positions. The enemy’s attack was spent by the 23rd. They had lost heavily during the previous three days, and on the 24th both sides were contented with mortar and handgrenade work.

FRENCH PROGRESS REPORT.

(Received 9.35 a.m.) Paris, December 28

A communique states: We continue to advance west of Lombaertzyde, which we have now reached from the dunes, where the enemy established a line of resistance. We lost a section of trenches near Hollebeke, and captured 80 metres of the first line of trenches near Carency, in the region of Lens. There lias been an intermittent cannonade in the Aisne Valley and at Champagne, and it was particularly intense in the regions of Rheims and Perthes. We slightly progressed along the whole front of the Neiguta and the Meuse, and repulsed a counter-attack north-east of St. Einbach. GENERAL. There are official reports of unsuccessful German heavy artillery and infantry attacks at Taboisselle, and the consolidation of French positions in newly-occupied ground along the front.

Havre, December-28

The Belgian Commission’s seventh report details numerous instances of Germans screening attacking colu.nr-« with Belgian men, women, and children, many of whom were killed and wounded by Belgian bullets, though the Belgians in most cases refiqinec] from firing.

Paris, December 28.

The. Warwickshires, making a desperate rush, gained some advance trenches in Flanders, only to find they had been vacated and mined. The mines exploded, killing and injuring several. Elsewhere the Germans quitted a trench and hoisted a white flag. The Northamptons advanced, and the Germans dropped upon their faces, whereupon a withering fire from their comrades in the srpporting trenches played havoc with the Northamptons, but not one of the white flag party w r as allowed to return.

The Germans at Roubaix found fifteen millions’ worth of raw wool, and despatched it to Germany. London, December 28.

The Daily Chronicle’s correspondent at Festubert, between Richebourg, Lavoue, and Givenchy, states that the latest fighting there was from the 18th to the 21st December. There was a temporary British set-back, but then they recaptured the lost ground. The British casualties have been grossly exaggerated. An eye-witness at headquarters stated that a sort of armistice was informally arranged, to enable both sides to bury their dead.