WESTERN FRONT.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 27 August 1917, Page 5

WESTERN FRONT.

j FIERCE FIGHTING CONTINUES. *. LONDON, August 25. Sir Douglas Haig reports: Fresh enemy troops counter-attacked positions in neighbourhood of the Ypres-Meuin road and repeated assaults forced back our advanced posts. Fierce fighting at Inverness Copse and Glencorse ; Wood continues. Our artillery dispersed concentrations in this area. The emy's losses were heavy. We advanced slightly south-east of St. Julien. We captured a length of German trench westward of Lens and an enemy post in the neighbourhood of Lombaertzyde, securing prisoners. FIGHTING IN CHAMPAGNE. LONDON, August 25. French communique.—ln Champagne there was a rather lively artillery duel in the region of Teton. On the Verdun front, a hostile artillery bombarded our new first line, especially north of Hill 304, between Samogneux and Chambrettes Farm. CANADIANS' WONDERFUL FIGHTAGAINST ODDS I . LENS BECOMES A TOMB CITY. LONDON, August 25. Mr. Philip Gibbs, describing the "Canadians' wonderful) fighting against heavy odds at Lens, states that six Guards' divisions who attacked have been shattered, also portions of other divisions engaged. The Germans used over fifty battalions. Their losses are estimated at between 12,000 and 15,000. After ten days of furious attack and counter-attack, the Canadians seized Green Crassier. The enemy came in strength to thrust them from the crest, but the Canadians still clingto the western side. The fighting consists of an uninterrupted scrips pf and below, ground for redoubts, v emplacements, houses and slag heaps. It fierce and bloody encounters above is mostly hand-to-hand with every weapon. The shell-fire is indescribable. Men coming out of the inferno seem stricken as by a nightmare. Lens has become a Prussian tomb city of abomination.

Wireless German official. —An English attack astride the Ypres-Menin road pressed us back to the north-wes-tern fringe of Herenthage Wood. We surprised an,d captured Guillcmont Farm, southward of Vendknille. We completely repulsed j£ French attack on, a three kilometres 'front southward of St. Quentin. communique.— There has been increased fighting at Verdun. French attacks on Forges river a®d Hill 304 were unsuccessful. DASHING FRENCH ATTACK. FORMIDABLE POSITIONS CARRIED. LONDON, August 24. A French communique states: "We dashingly attacked this morning between Avocourt Wood and Mort Horn' me West, and went considerably beyond our obective. We carried the formidable Hill 304 in a single rush, also Boixammard, westward of the line of foritfications northward of the •hill, and reached the south bank of Forges Brook between Baucourt and Bethincourt. The average depth of our adavance is over two kilometres. We carried out a vigorous offensive east of lens-Bethincourt Road, which enabled us to widen our positions north of Mort Homme to a depth of a kilometre." THE GERMAN STORY. FRENCH GAINS ADMITTED. LONDON, August 24. A wirless German official message says: "We captured trenches southward of the Ypres-Menin Road, and destroyed 21 tanks. On Wednesday we repulsed the Canadians when they were attempting to enter Lens. There is intense artillery fire on both sides of the Meuse. We evacuated Height 304. Our troops reached the Aa River in some places on the coast. We repulsed attacks at the rear of Soveja and Susita Valley." LAST OBSERVATION POST AT VERDUN. TAKEN BY THE FRENCH. GERMAN MORALE WEAKENING. RQCeived 8.55. PARIS, August 26. Marcel Hutin, the well-known French writer, describing the capture of Hill 304, says: —We secured the last observation post surrounding Verdun,' and now dominate the enemy from each side. A striking feature of the fighting is the large number of officers prisonered in proportion to men. This reverses previous experience, and indicates the German army's morale is weakening.

GERMAN DIVISION WIPED OUT. 2545 PRISONERS TAKEN. Received 8|55. z PARIS, August 20. French headquarters, in connection with the capture of Hil? 304, says the Brandenburgers' reserve division was practically wiped out, sixty-nine officers and 2794 men of its three regiments being prisonered—well over onethird of the entire bayonet strength. Prisoners include the whole divisional organisation, with cooks, cyclists and even the band, which was sent to the front at Goose Hill as'fighting men. A GERMAN SOLDIER'S LETTER RATHER BE IN HELL. Received 8.55. PARIS, August 26. A captured German's letter to his father, written at Lens, says: I would rather go to Hell than continue within the imprisoning circJe of shells. Thirty-five of my company of one hundred have been rendered casualties during an hour and the faces of others are the faces of the condemned awaiting death. The English have a wall of iron against which we are vainly exhausting ourselves. CANADIANS' IRRESISIBLE DASH. Received 8.55. LONDON, August 26. British headquarters report: The Canadians, with another irresistible rush captured another important trench, curving round thte entire western outskirts of Lens and a second running east across the Arras Road. POSITIONS REGAINED. Received 9.45. LONDON, August 26. General Haig reports: e We drov out the enemy from a portion of a trench northeast of Giullemont Farm, completely Te-establishing our portion. The enemy counter-attack failed. The Portuguese repulsed raiders southeast of Laventie.

BAVARIANS' ENORMOUS LOSSES. Received 9.45. BERNE, August 2G. Telegrams from Munich allege that the! Bavarians, agitated by the enormous losses in Flanders, declare that the Kaiser and Hindenburg are allowing the flower of the manhood af Bavaria to be massacred in "order to spare the Prussians. FRENCH TACTICAL SUCCESS. MORE ARTILLERY THAN INFANRY. - Received 9.45. PARIS, August 27. The JorunaFs correspondent at Verdun says the French had more artillery than infantry in the firing line, thus a tactical succes s enabled them to achieve in five days a result which took the Germans five months. RESULT OF FURTHER SUCCESSFUL ADVANCE LONDON, August 25. After capturing Hill 304, the French advanced two-thirds of a mile beyond its northern foot. This success rounds off the crescent of the new front a?id Heaves the French established in advantageous positions on the heights of the Meuse. Excepting for gas and other infernal' tricks, the German army has shown itself in everj aspect inferior in this test battle. French communique.—We progressed north of Hill 304, We carried last night three fortified works south of Bethincourt. Wo prisonered 450 unbounded on the leift bank of the Meuse yesterday, making a total of SIOO. A LIST OF CAPTURES. LONDON, August 25. British official—Since April 9th, the British have captured 36,155 Germans. [ The French have captured 43,722. The Italians have captured 40, 6SI (chiefly Austrians). The Russians have captured 37,211 (chiefly Austrians). The British have prisonered 102,218 Germans during the war period. The Germans have prisonered approximately 43,000 (including Indians). The British have prisonered, in all theatres, during the war period, 131,766, excluding African natives. The enemies prisonered during the war period, approximately ■ 56,500 (excluding African natives). PREPARING FOR ANOTHER TWO YEARS OF WAR. . WASHINGTON, August. 25. The State Department i s informed that Germany is urging her people to prepare for another two years of war, based on figures compiled by German scientists, which show that on the termination of two years the Allies' food situation will tie as sen ous as Germany"s is to-day, and the Allie s will be unable to endure the hardships and will seek peace.