In the West

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 66, 20 March 1915, Page 5

In the West

CROWN PRINCE OF BAVARIA SERIOUSLY WOUNDED. United Press Association. (Received 9.55 a.m.) Amsterdam, March 19. ft is reported that the Crown Prince of Bavaria was seriously wounded by a fragment of shell, FRENCH PROGRESS REPORT. (Received 9.10 a.m.) Paris, March 19. A communique states: “We captured and destroyed the enemy’s communications and trenches near Notre Dame de Lorette, towards the village of Ablain, killing or capturing the defenders. We progressed 150 metres after a violent light between Four de Paris and Bolante. We also carried a salient at Les Epa rges eastward of a position held by the enemy since February, and repulsed counter-attacks.

UNPRECEDENTED BOMBARDMENT. BRITISHERS INDIGNANT AT LOSING DINNER AND THE RUM. Times and Sydney Sun Service. (Received 8 a.m.) London, March 19. “Eye-Witness” says; “Prisoners stated that they never experienced a bombardment similar to that preluding the assault on Xieuve Chapelle, many refuging in the dug-outs when the British reached the trenches. A wounded Prussian officer of the truculent type exclaimed: “Yon don’t fight; you murder. My regiment never had a chance from the first. There was a shell every ten yards. Nothing could live under such fire.” It appears that the Germans are still confident and optimistic. The Britishers attacked with the greatest dash and gallantry, and after days and nights of incessant fighting they displayed little signs of the strain. One battalion was greatly indignant. They had settled down to eat their dinners during a lull in the battle, and the rum ration had just been served out, when the Germans in an attack with bombs, forced them to evacuate the trenches. The fury of the counterattack a few minutes later was unequalled, and they re-took the trench, securing a large haul of prisoners, but there was little left of the dinner and none of the rum.

THE ALLIES’ PREPARATIONS FOR BIG ADVANCE. United Press Association. New York, March 19. A message from Paris indicates the magnitude of the preparations of the Allies for a big advance. The carrying capacity of all roads has been increased in order to cope with the enormous quantities of munitions being transported to the front. Thousands of motor vehicles are also employed. In addition to Britain’s new army of a million, which she has been moving across the Channel in the past couple of months, France has a million men, splendidly equipped, and ready to take the field at a minute’s notice. Artillery brigades have been augmented by a 1000 new guns parked in convenient positions ready for immediate use. THE ENORMOUS GERMAN CASUALTIES. I ' Times and Sydney Sun Service. London, March 19. The London Times’ military correspeudent states that the population of Germany is a third larger than ours, but the German casualties are ten times more numerous. We read our casualty lists daily with set faces, but what would we think if the casualties were proportionately as large as the enemy’s whose inmost thoughts, though bravely concealed, must dwell on the unpalatable truth that after unparalleled sacrifices of life, money, and material, Germany has failed to establish a predominance enabling her to aspire to favorable terms of peace ? Paris, March 19. We had marked gains north-east of Mesnil and Hartmannswillerkopf, where the enemy’s losses were very high, the trenches being full of dead.