THE SLAUGHTER AT MORT HOMME.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 121, 23 May 1916, Page 5

THE SLAUGHTER AT MORT HOMME.

THE VERDUN FIGHT PARALLELED

OVER FIFTY THOUSAND GERMANS ENGAGED

LINES OF TRENCHES COMPLETELY OBLITERATED

' GERMANS FINALLY SCURRY BACK IN DISORDER. (Received 10.40 p.m., May 22.) PARIS, May 22. About 50,000 were engaged in repeated assaults on Mort Homme along" a two-mile front. On the east, and steeper side, the Crown Prince's troops concentrated at Crow's Wood got into our advanced trenches, which were badly shattered, but they were quickly thrown back. Desperate fighting took place on the western and northern slopes. Alter repeated assaults over ground torn up by a preliminary bombardment, some detachments reached the French second positions, but were broken and dispersed with heavy loss.

The former front line had ceased to exist and the ground became "No Man's Land." Reinforcements were constantly brought up and new assaults launche dthroughout Saturday night, constituting a new hecatomb. The Crown Prince Gained a few yar Is of broken, exposed ground of no tactical value.

The bombardment reached its height at 1 o'clock on Saturday, when much of the first French line became a smoking rubble heap. The first line was abandoned before the enemy was outmanoeuvred Assaulting columns advanced at 2 o'clock, and were faced by a thick curtain of lire. •Wave after wave of the enemy broke before they acquired the impetus to carry them through to the French trenches. The Germans in the western section, sweeping over the advanced positions, streamed straight up to the French second line. There the effect of the French artillery and machine guns wa s deadly, and showed that the Germans had outrun their strength. Towards the end of the day the enemy were scurrying in disorder back to their trenches. There flight was marked by heaps of dead.