WAR NOTES

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 26 June 1917, Page 6

WAR NOTES

GERMAM SEPOKT ADVANCE.

LONDON, June 23

Wireless German official. We successfully advanced south-eastward of jgftlianj northward of the Aisne. Wiieless German official.—We repulsed English advances northwestwards g>f Warnetqnj, eastward of Hooplines land south-eastward of Lens.

The French regained sections of trenches they lost at Vauxaillon after four attacks. Further southward attacks failed.

The enemy pentrated our lines on the ridge eastward of Conillet. We captured positions on a 400 metres front on Poehl mountain, south-eastward of Moronvillers. Severe enemy fighting has been active at Smorgon, westward of the Luck-Zloczow-Tarnopol railway' and the Narajoka areas. j Wireless German official. —We repulsed English detachments at sever-

al points. French attacks westwards of Cornillet and Vauxillion were successful. We have brought down since the 15th, twenty-eight enemy aeroplanes and four balloons.

BRITISH REPULSE RAIDS. Sir Douglas Haig reports: We repulsed raiders eastward of Epeehy, the enemy leaving several dead in our wire. We prisonered a few wounded. An enemy attempt at Guillemont Farm, in the same neighbourhood, failed. Our aeroplanes co-operated with the artillery with good results, despite bad weather. We brought down one and drove down six. Three of ours are missing. LONDON, June 23. Sir Douglas Haig reports. We raided positions northward of Gavrelle. We conducted successfully a local operation in the neighbourhood of Warneton. We repulsed enemy raiders eastward of Ypres. . GERMAN EXODUS FROM VIMY.

MINE SHAFTS FILLED. "The bustle of the German impending departure could not be hidden from the watchful eyes looking down from the heights of Vimy,'* says the Morning Post's correspondent. "When 20,000 grenades were thrown into one mine shaft near Lievin, the subsequent explosion was itself sufficient warning of their flitting, and this was but one of many upheavals witnessed while their infantry still held the old front line. "The 83rd Pioneer Battalion received orders to blow up the great Lievin crasier and demolish the mine workings, and they laboured throughout the Friday, laying 25001 b (over a ton) of explosives, which was supplemented by all the odd stores they could find in the bomb depots. They threw in every available hand grenade, even clips of cartridges, and made one great pile which detonated during the night. They wrecked as many dugouts as possible, but they could not make a thorough job of these stout fortifications. The German engineers built not wisely but too well, and in many places the charges hurriedly thrust into underground galleries did but little damage."

"Not a sign of life could be seen anywhere. I could look down empty streets where the grass was sprouting "between the pavement stones and into the windows of deserted houses, and in all that great expanse of country crowded with villages and towns there was not a single soul save a handful of vanishing Germans and the British army pressing forward in pursuit.

"Of all the thousands of people whose homes were there not one remained. The population of Lens, after living for more than two years almost on the threshold of the battle front, with the shells of the opposing armies singing overhead, had been evacuated on the eve of this retreat. They went, so I was told, by an eyewitness of this mournful pilgrimmage, with only what possessions they could carry on their backs, turned out of their homes at a few hours' notice, old men, women, and children, marching alike between files of mounted field gendarmes to one of the concentration depots behind the new German lines."