In the West.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 41, 23 May 1916, Page 5

In the West.

THE BATTLE OF VEROUN. GERMANY'S FAILURE 70 PIERCE LIRE. ("United JTiiiSS Association. 1 Loudon May 2J. Colonel Repington, the military critic, says ilu.it wlicn the Germans attacked Verdun they were convinced they would strike ji decisive bltnyjpul sweep on to Paris. They would then I turn and overwhelm Russia. Dogged French valor frustrated this plan. , The French momentarily reeled, but they I speedily recovered and established a defence line which is likely to, prove impregnable to Germany’s full might, and fury. The Germans cannot reign theni--1 selves, for their supreme effort has failed and they dare not face the conisequences at home and abroad. Even (confiding Austria docs not believe the [clumsy fiction of progress'according to the preconceived plan. Hungarian unities refuse to believe that three-month ’.pauses are part of the German staff’s {conception of the venture, and they re.mark that the battle so far lias been a French victory, adding that it is impossible to pierce the Verdun region. If this opinion is censored in the Budapostli press, what is being thought of the dual monarchy in the Fatherland itself ?

j The Times’ correspondent at Paris says that each development of the Verdun battle further separates the Germans from their goal. When the first onslaught of Douaumoiit failed they transferred their attentions to Pepper ■ Hill, but this move was also without .success. They then moved further afield across the Meuse to Mort Homme, but the latter was as firm as Douaumont. They then tried to turn Mort Homme about Hill 304, but without success. Then they displayed a centre attack in the Avocourt region, where there has been an uninterrupted struggle ever since. The French are holding their own and are inflicting heavy losses. The arrival of German reinforcements indicates, the importance the enemy attaches to these operations, and also points to the extent of Jus losses. French airmen spotted great railway activity at the' back of the front, and bonibed many railway stations before, reinforcements arrived. ON THE BRITISH FRONT. ENEMY ATTACKS REPULSED. London, May 22. Sir Douglas Haig reports: Time were several successful air encounters on Saturday. Two enemy machines fell in the German lines and a third crashed to earth in our lines, where a fourth also landed undamaged. A Bn tish aeroplane fell in the enemy lines. We repulsed three small enemy attacks south-west of Wieltje. There was heavy enemy artillery activity from Vimy to Loos, also south of Souchez against our front trenches. We silenced a hostile battery north of Mjitz Wood. VERDUN OPERATIONS. AN ALL-DAY BATTLE. Paris, May 22. A communique says: The battle continued all day desperately between Avocourt Wood and the Meuse. We captured two trenches in the vicinity of the Esnes-Haucourt road. Artillery entirely wrecked a small work occupied by the enemy on the 18th. The enemy immediately east of Hill 30.4 launched an attack, momentarily penetrating our first line, but. they were ' quickly driven out, A violent offensive by an enemy brigade on the western slopes of Mort Homme was stopped by our batteries, I which caught the enemy column following the assaulting waves and compelled them to fall back. Tic 'intently bombarded the Douaumont secjtor.' We sharply attacked and captured the Haudromont quarries, which were strongly organised by the enemy. Twenty bombs were dropped on Dunkirk on Saturday. Four people were j killed and fifteen were wounded. Another squadron dropped one hundred bombs in the suburbs of Dunkirk on Sunday. Three people were killed and twenty were wounded. Allied aeroplanes pursued and brought down two German aeroplanes as they were icentering the German lines. Fifty-three 'Allied aeroplanes dropped *250 bombs b,u enemy cantonments at Wyfege and 'Ghistilleh.

The Germans threw fifteen bombs on Belfort, pausing insignificant damage. DESPERATE FIGHTING. FRONT LINE WIPED OUT. Paris, May 22. About fifty thousand troops were engaged in repeated assaults on Mort Homme along a two miles front on the east and steeper side. The Crown Prince’s troops were concentrated in Crows’ Wood, and they were quickly thrown back. There was desperate lighting on the western and northern slopes. After repeated assaults, over ground torn up by a preliminary bombardment. some detachments reached the French second positions, but they were broken and dispersed with heavy losses. A former front line ceased to exist and the ground became “No Man’s Land.” 'Reinforcements were constantly brought up and new assaults were launched throughout Saturday night. The Crown Prince gained a few yards of broken and exposed ground, which is of no tactical value.

A DISORDERLY RETREAT. Paris. May 22. The bombardment .aimed ii s height at one o’clock on Saturday, when much <,;■ (he lir.' French line oceanic ;■ mic-a ine rubbish-iicaj). I lie tirst hue hii.s. abandoned before the enemy moved out in assanliiny columns, and advanced at two o'clock and faced a Id.ick curtain <<f lire. Ware after nave of tin? enemy broke ho'-'orc the attack acquired ait iuqieUis sullieieut to carry il thronga to the Pre-mli trenches. The Germans, in the Western section, sweeping over tile advanced positions, streamed straight up „o the French second line,, but there the effect of the French anillory and machine-guns was deadly, and showed that the Germans had outrun their strength. Towards the end of the day the enemy wa,i scurrying in disorder back to their trenches. The {light was marked by heaps of dead. GERMANISING BELGIANS. Loudon, May 19. The Times’ correspondent at Amsterdam learns from an authoritative Belgian source that the Germans are loicing the young Belgians to join the army and compelling the local authorities to help to enroll them. UHLANS RETURN FROM BALKANS London, May 20. [ A thousand Uhlans, who went to the Balkans, eight months ago, have returned to Belgium and gone into camp .near Brussels.