In the West

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 28, 3 February 1915, Page 5

In the West

WITH THE ARTILLERY. TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION. Timh and Stdnkt Sun Bbbviom. London, February 2. A field artillery officer writes: “Our worst dangers are when the officers are taking observations. The country is so fiat that it is absolutely necessary to get above the level, where one was exposed to tremendous risk as well as affording the chance of giving away the locality of the observation station, where the battery commander sits all day with a telephone. The Germans are bnsy the whole time with a telescope trying to discover where we are located, and they let drive their “Black Marias.” Before daylight one man starts off to get the guns, crawling round hedges in seeking cover, and never going the same way twice, going or coming, all day. They have a pocket volume of Kipling unopened in their pockets, but life is too strenuous and exciting to contemplate the imaginary scenes of the situation, as the everyday incidents far outweigh anything in fiction.”

THE FIGHT IN ALSACE. GERMANS EVACUATE CERNAY. Unitsd Pees* Association.Paris, February 2. The French report gradual progress in Alsace. The Germans quietly evacuated Cernay, which the French guns have made untenable. The Germans are now bombarding Cernay to prevent the French occupying it. Meanwhile the French are shelling the forest of Xonnenbruch, where the Germans are entrenched, barring the advance to Mulhausen. GERMAN AIRSHIPS OVER DUNKIRK. Paris, February 2. Six German airmen dropped bombs on Dunkirk, causing insignificant damage. GERMAN ATTACKS REPULSED.

Official: There has been a very heavy fall of snow. The Germans, on the morning of the Ist February, assaulted our trenches north of the Bethune-La Bassee road, but were repulsed, leaving numerous dead. German infantry at Beaumonthamel, north of 'Albert, attempted a surprise, but were forced to fly, abandoning explosives. Great activity prevails at Fontaine Madame and Bois de la Grime. A German attack was repulsed towards Bagatelle. FIGHTING FOR VALUABLE POTASSIUM DEPOSITS. I ROUGH ESTIMATE £2,400,000,000. (Received 8.40 a.m.) Paris, February 2. The forest of Nonnenbruch was stubbornly contested owing to the deposits of potassium salts, which are valued at sixty milliards of francs. The deposits have hitherto been in the bands of German capitalists. (A milliard is 1000 millions.)

THE ENEMY THROWN INTO CONFUSION. (Received 8.40 a.m.) t Paris, February 2. A .communique yesterday says : The artillery struggle has increased in intensity on both sides. Portions of a German regiment drove back the British post at Guinchy, but the British counter attacking regained the lost ground, progressed beyond, and captured some of tbo enemy’s trenches. A whole battalion participated in the assault on the trenches mentioned. Our fire broke two of the attacks, and the third forced an entrance into the trenches, but a counter-attack with bayonets threw the enemy into confusion, and only a few escaped, the remainder being killed or captured. Our heavy calibre artillery bombarded Xoyou railway station, where the enemy were re-provisioning, causing two explosions.