WESTERN FRONT.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 3 August 1917, Page 5

WESTERN FRONT.

NIGHT ATTACKS IMPROVE BRITISH POSITION.

LONDON, August 1.

General Sir Douglas Haig'reports:— Wo improved our new line by night operations southward of the YpresComines Canal, and repulsed counterattacks against our new positions at La Basseville, northward of the YpresComiues canal and near the Ypres railway. Heavy rain since yesterday afternoon is not favouring operations. A French communique says:—After our magnificent success in Belgium we cionisolidated,. in 'totronjtial |the positions won. An artillery struggle continues on the whole Aisne front. Strong counterattacks enabled us to make progress east of Cerny at several points. After a bombardment lasting several days in the region between Avocourt and Hill 304 the Germans this morning attacked the positions we captured on July 17, but by evening were only able to reach certain elements of our first line, where they were held up by our fire curtain.

TROOPS SWIM THROUGH FLOODED POSITIONS. LONDON, August 1. The United Press Association’s correspondent at the front, Mr. Beach Thomas, reports a slight pause in the operations. The rain transformed Flanders into a muddy marsh. Even before the rain the shell-holes were filled with sewage, and these are now brimming over, making the advance a matter of swimming as well as walking. No reports concerning guns captured have' been received. The artillery smashed up Germans massing for a counter-attack eastward of Fmenborg. Further southward the British took Forest Farm. Hot fighting developed round the windmill at Warneton, which the British took, lost, and finally recaptured. The French maintain their positions nearly three miles eastward of Monday’s front lines. Reports received from Berlin state that as a result of the Western offensive the Kaiser and von' Hindenburg and von Ludendorff have returned from Galicia. It is estimated that the total prisoners taken on the first day bf the new offensive was 5,000,

TWO OUTSTANDING FACTS. BRITISH METHOD AND PRECISION. ENEMY READY FOR THE ATTACK. LONDON, August 2. The consensus of the reports on Tuesday’s battle testify to two main points, (1) The methodical control of operations, whereby each unit’s task from first to last was measured with studious precision, while the forward movement of the artillery behind the advance was carried out on a wide front with extraordinary promptitude; (2) the execeptioual strength of the enemy’s resistance was illustrated by obstinate struggles at many points, and subsequent prompt, frequent, and powerful counter-attacks, showing they were ready for us on this occasion, as they had not been since the new Britsh army reached its full fighting strength. This fact enormously increases the importance

the unbroken chain of successful thrusts from Steenstraate to La Basseeville.

THE ENEMY ALARMED. LONDON, August 1. Mr. Philip Gibbs says: The enemy alarmed by the menace, is rushing up reserves in omnibuses and light railways over shea-swept roads. AMSTERDAM, August 2. The Germans ar e moving their headquarters' eastwards, probably almost to Brussels. GERMANS ADMIT ALLIED SUCCESS. LONDON, August 2. Wireless German official. With masses such as were never before used during the period of the war, the English, with the French in their wake, attacked yesterday. Their, aim is a lofty one, being intended to deliver an annihilating blow to the U-boat pest, which from the coast of Flanders, is undermining England’s mastery of the sea. Densely packed attacking waves, of closely placed divisions followed each other. Numerous tanks and cavalry participated. The enemy penetrated, by tremendous pressure, our defensive line some sectors, temporarily gaining considerable territory. Reserves counter-attacked, and after bitten hand-to-hand engagements . all day, they drove out or forced back the enemy into, the foremost crater-field. We were compelled to abandon Bixschoote, the enemy penetrating deeper in this sector. The enemy’s attacks in the evening on our, new battle-line failed.

FIERCE FIGHTING CONTINUES. EBB 'AND FLOW OF THE BATTLE. LONDON, August 2. The High Commissioner, reports: — British official: There was" rain throughout the day. Our line advanced slightly in the neighbourhood of Zillebehe and Zandvoorde Road. Our Allies further gained the east bank of the Yser Canal. At night the enemy heavily counter-attacked the new positions east and north-east of Ypres, between Westhoek and St. Julien with strong forces. We resisted ithe enemy’s repeated attempts to drive us from important positions on the high ground captured yesterday in this neighbourhood, but under the weight of the assaults and stubborn fighting wo were compelled to withdraw our advanced troops from the village of St. Julien. Fighting was particularly fierce for the possession of the village of Westhoek, of which we hold the western outskirts. In the afternoon the enemy again attacked in the neighbourhood of the Ypres-Eoulers railway, an attempt succeeding in entering our advanced positions on a narrow front. Fighting continues. Prisoners number over 5000.

PITIABLE CONDITIONS OF GERMANS.

TERROR-STRICKEN LIKE HUNTED ANIMALS.

Received 9.5. LONDON, August 2. Mr. Philip Gibbs telegraphs: A rainstorm veils the battlefield, aided by a dense mist. The wretched German infantry are lying in the open woods in a frightful condition, wet to the skin, and cut off by our barrages. The sufferings of the Germans huddled in exposed places are as hideous as anything in human agony, slashed to bits by storms of shells, and urged forward to counter-attacks knowing death is inevitable. The prisoners have the look of men who have passed through hell. Their drenched boots are full of water, their sunken eyes and ash-en-grey faces are like sick, hunted animals. Many are groaning loudly and piteously with cramp in their stomachs from long exposure and hunger. Others wept bitterly, saying they hate the war, They do not hide the sufferings of the people at home. The army is filled with -gloomy forebodings and living terror of our tremendous gunfire. About one-fourth of the prisoners are anaemic lads, terrorised and incapable of fighting > Some of our own men were stunned by the terrific blast of field guns wheel to wheel. They describe rows of German dead, including a brigade staff, clasping gas masks, caught suddenly by the blackest terror of modern warfare.

Military critics point out significance of the Berlin communique mendaciously implying Tuesday’s assault was triumphantly repelled, and that the day brougTir*a. great German victory. Newspapers interpret the rhetorical communique of a sign of political desperation, and consider, it a remarkable pendant to the Kaiser’s two bombastic defiant proclamations, GERMAN'GAS FOR GERMAN TROOPS. k GERMAN DIVISIONS BATTERED. Received 10.20. LONDON, August 2. During Tuesday’s battle we used from the captured booty a quantity of the new'est German gas shell’s.

The Red Cross surpassed itself in its immediate and unceasing succour of the- wounded. Specialist surgeons attended at surgical stations on the edge of the battlefield. Body wounds were as expertly tended as in the base hospitals, within a couple of hours of the injury. The same treatment was extended to the German wounded.

Four German divisions were pounded, purameled and wrecked by the bombardment, and were taken out before the battle proper, followed by six others, who in battle faced the artillery, burning oil, gas, and molten liquid showdrs before encountering the Allies’ indomitable infantry. Altogether the bulk of thirteen divisions were so punished and shaken that their recovery will be slow and costly. The Welshmen captured Pilkemville and a large portion of "Pie ridge, other troops assisting, while the Scottish and English captured the sleep at Zonnebeke ridge.

Experts consider the line of the Lys river, where we are facing determined opposition, ( is of more importance strategically than the country further north'.

TENACITY OF NEW ZEALANDERS Received 11.30. August 2. The Journal says the New Zealanders showed a splendid spirit, seizing cross roads and machine-gun redoubts at Le Basseville, after terrific hand-to-hand fighting, arid despite two great counter attacks, held on firmly.

WELSH GUARDS' HEROISM. PRUSSIAN GUARDS DIE ON THE SPOT. GREAT WORKS BY THE TANKS. Received 11.30. PARIS, August 2. It is estimated the German casualties for the first, day were twenty thousand. Le Petit Parisian's correspondent says: After the first day’s formidable found, the Allied troops contented themselves repulsing strong counterattacks, especially in Ypres sector. The Germans threw formidable massed forces against <the British who endured the struggle, rendered harder by the first day’s work. The heavy artillery continues its devastation, though the sodden ground renders it less effective. When the Welsh cleared all the enemy trenches with grenades and penetrated jSt. Julien. "on (three sides, they had fierce street fighting, and had to lay siege to every house in turn. The cannon was frightful, but the Welsh covered themselves with glory. The Prussian guards obeyed to die on the spot and prisoners were not taken. One young prisoner declared th e Guards had been promised they were not to participate in this fight and were to constitute the last reserve but. as things were going badly they had to go forward, only two out 150 being left alive. The tanks did great work. One attached a concrete redoubt, and all its occupants surrendered, Another made for a spinney bristling with machine-guns, and crushed everything flat. The garrison surrendered. FRENCH CONGRATULATIONS. Received 11.30. PARIS, August 2. M. Painleve, Minster for W T ar, has telegraphed to Lord Derby: The advance has aroused enthusiasm in France. The heroism of your troops ■has dealt the Germans one of the heaviest blows of the war.

A BATTLE OF GUNNERS AND INFANTRY. “THE CAVALRY OF THE AIR.” Received 9.15. LONDON, August 2. The Daily Chronicle’s correspondent at French headquarters in Flanders says. The French army is fighting in a sector between Noordschoote and Boesinghe, difficult fiat country offering little possibility of concealment, while inundations extend south to neighbourhood of Ferryman’s House. The sector is important, because of pointing eastward on the left to the forest of Houthulst, a German stronghold since the autumn of 1914, and on the right to Koulers. The German first line beyond the Canal is already untenable by Sunday’s bombardment and abandoned. The passage of the moderate watercourse has thus proved a relatively easy proposition, and the whole tjiree strteches of field works of the first position were in French hands in three -hours. The armies are holding ground they won, breaking successive counter-attacks. The German staff has not yet abandoned hope of recapturing the lost defences. We are waiting his efforts with calm confidence. The battle was a signal triumph for gunners and infantry, and was fhe first great battle of the war entirely without the assistance of aeroplane observation, but the venturesome aviators played a new part, and flew low' through the dense mist and engaged machine-gun redoubts, silencing many strong points. Thus they became the cavalry of the air, some intrepid pilots dropping so low that the wings nearly brushed the concrete forts w'hile the machine-guns were raking the surrounding trenches. It has been a laborious day for the 'gunners bringing the batteries on flooded roads. A dismal drizzle continued all day long. GERMANY’S WAR LORDS MEET AT WAR COUNCIL.

Received 11.30. AMSTERDAM, August 2. The Kaiser has summoned a War Council at Brussels to-day. The Crown Prince, Hindenburg, Ludendorff, Prince Rupprecht, von Capelle, Albrecht, and others are to be present.

FORCING THE WAR. “TIMES ’’ STORY DENIED. COPENHAGEN, August 1. The German Government officially denies the “Times” allegation that at a meeting at Potsdam on July 5, 1914, the war was decided upon at an AustroGerman congress, when the terras of the ultimatum to Serbia, which it, was recognined wou(ld invcjlve /war ‘with Russia, were fixed. The Government says that neither then nor at any other time was such r meeting held. *