The Flanders Battle.

Taihape Daily Times, 16 April 1918, Page 5

The Flanders Battle.

HEROIC RESISTANCE BY BRITISH 21 DIVISIONS AGAINST ONE BRIGADE. TERRIBLE GERMAN LOSSES. HUNS MAKE RAMPART OF DEAD COMRADES. YORKS REFUSE TO FALL BACK. Received 8.50 a.m. LONDON, April 15. Pirie Robinson, writing bn~ the 14th April, says: The Fifty-first Division was continuously fighting all day; then, as the enemy leaked round, shifting their front at night and fighting again. All sorts of troops had been pressed into the combatant ranks and done well. They drove back the Germans across the Lys at Bac St Maur, and held the line of the stream until a thrust on the left "by Nieppe compelled them to fall back behind Steenwercks. The Royal Fusiliers did extremely well at Merville. Constant rearguard fighting occurred at North Estaires by Neuf Berquin, where the orderlies, engineers, and mixed detachments held up the enemy very gallantly. The line was then opposing the German masses, who were pressing on, first on one side and then on the other. The King’s Scottish Borderers, distingushed themselves against great odds in the region of Vieux Beryckquin and Merris. The Welsh also fought well, holding positions where the Germans repeatedly failed to make ground. Scattered posts ahead of the troops, holding crossings at the Lys and Lawe, fought heroically against the German flood, which crept over them, one post of Durhams especially holomg up the advance and killing great numbers of Germans until at last only a remnant fou.ght its way back through the encircling waves. A bloody struggle occurred at Estaires. There was no time to blow up the drawbridge, and swarms of Germans poured into the village, but .were beateli, back across the canal, with the result that for a long time the half-destroyed bridge was.no man’s land, which neither side could cross. Germans finally swarmed around by Croix du Bac. At last the Yorks refused to fall back, and nothing more was heard of them. It is calculated one tired brigade held up 2| German divisions. The savageness of the fighting at Estaires was duplicated at Merville. The blind, merciless struggle went on in the streets through the darkness of the night. The bridge across the Bouvre was blown up while the Germans were thereon. All went up in the air. Another was blown up before the Durhams crossed, and they had to regain by swimming. The Germans attacking the Northumberland Fusiliers on the Lys were mown down in such numbers that late-comers actually sought to make breastworks of their own dead machine-gunners, and fought brilliantly. One hung on alone, firing into the masses until they reached sixty yards and commenced to surfound him. Then he smashed the gun and escaped. In hundreds of cases it is marvellous how the British fought; the strain was inconceivable. I have seen men drop out by the roadside in stupor and sleep.

GERMAN ATTACKS ON MERVILLE FAIL. Received 9.5 a m. LONDON, April 15. The British have lost Neuve Eglise. Seven German attacks on Merville failed. 'AMERICAN TROOPS IN FRANCE. SAILING IN INCREASING NUMBERS. NEW YORK, April 14. Mr. Daniels, in a speech, stated: Ships arc carrying our soldiers to Franco faster every week. We have requisitioned every available American ship, and secured some from Britain. LONDON, April 14. The High Commissioner reports as follows: French official: Our attacks completely recaptured Hangard-en-San-terro village and cemetery. ON THE AMERICAN FRONT. TERRIFIC ATTACK BY GERMANS. THE ENEMY REPULSED. LONDON, April 14. The United Press correspondent on the American front states that the Germans on Saturday made a terrific artillery and gas-shell attack, then two fierce onslaughts on the American positions in the, Apremont Forest, north-west of Toul. The Americans repulsed attacks. The Gorman casualties were more than 300.