VASTER THAN WATERLOO.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 156, 8 December 1914, Page 3

VASTER THAN WATERLOO.

FIGHTING IN A MIST. TEHKIBLE BAYONET CHARGE. A London Daily Mail correspondent in Northern Franco writes.-—"The autumn night mists, alternating with 'moonlight of astonishing brilliance, like floods of sunshine, have revealed and half concealed some of the most criti- | cal forward movements of the waT. • The mists covered the troops and the j puis like a face cloth. The fighting J eastward of Yprcs lias been terrific, and j thi'ough the mist almost terrifying evi- I deuce' of the German losses have, and- j denly been revealed. Never before this . campaign has the effect of our artillery fire upon human life been so manifested. The correspondent adds that our troops suffered, but the enemy's losses were three times as great. The battle around Ypres was on a vaster Bcale than Waterloo. The Times' correspondent telegraphed: '■The British officers are loud in their praise of the men, for the more the latter are tested, the higher they seem to rise to tin- occasion. Whole columns of Germans have been wiped out,, the British gunners taking the, fullest advantage of the German mass formation. A major of the Royal Field Artillery _ almost danced' in front of his battery' as, with his glasses fixed on" the advancing masses, he implored his men to "let 'em have it!"; and assured the gunners: 'They're falling in heaps.' " In later messages, the Times' eorrepoudent. reports:—"Alter a, desperate attack lasting the whole week, the German attempt to break the Allies' line at Ypres failed. It may » admitted that the position two days ago was serious. . The town itself was bombarded by the Germans with extraordinary violence, and under the fierce cannonading the allies had to from the town, which then became. No Man's Land, and across which shells burst from botii sides.

"Tin: Hermans made a superhuman final effort. Under cover ol a fierce bombardment they determined for a fierce -oiislany'it. Masses of men wen; lauuciiect in suceeasion sit a chosen point of our front, but tin- attack was met in a swpremc way. Two regiments, one. the Scottish, Bml one of the (iuavds, weal with the. bayonet to stein the advance.

•It was the. most terrible bayonet cliarae of the whole, war. It succeeded, the break in tin- line was repaired, ami the Herman attack was once more driven back. That was their last effort. To-day the Germans are di'ou»i:ig occasional shells into Yprcs, but tbo attacks have censed. They are now assailj ing the Allies' line at Arrns, 40 miles further south, but not with the same I'm j as that of the onslaught last weeK."