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Taranaki Daily News, 23 June 1915, Page 5

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FORWARD AND BACK. BRITISH ASSAULT AT FESTUBERT, HOW THE TRENCHES WERE TAKEN. Received June 22, 0.30 p.m.

London, June 22. "Eye-witness," describing,' tlie offensive commencing on the 15th soiitli of Festubert, says:— After a moderately prolonged bombardment we immediately captured the first line of German trendies about a mile in length, the enemy retreating towards Ruedonvert on the north and Chapelle Saint Roes on the south. Our men then penetrated well behind the first line, bombing their way literally along the trenches of the second line. German bombing parties made strong counter-attacks. At night our troops withdrew to their original position. The British assault on the right was prepared _by firing a heavily charged mine, which killed a considerable number who had collected because our artillery fire was less hot on that section. Many bodies were found. On the left we took longer to cross "no man's land." The Germans were able to return to the ruins of their first line of defences and open fire on the infantry stumbling across ground pitted with craters and cumbered by debris and wire entanglements. An artillery officer, however,' luckily saw what was happening, and when the Germans rose to shoot he greeted them with an unexpected outburst of shrapnel and hi<m explosives hells. After a further bombardment on Wednesday our troops recaptured some, points, the net gain at Festubert being a hundred yards in depth with a three hundred yards' frontage.

, In the meanwhile at Ypres we regained a section of the front lost by -a gut attack on May 24. The Germans constructed the usual network of defences west of Bellewarde Lake, a projection extending westwards from the chateau Hooge to the Roulers .line. Our infantry rushed the German first line on -i front of a thousand yards at four o'clock on Wednesday morning, reaching the lake at some points, though thsr* was no progress ou the right near Hooge.

lighting continued ail day. At one point tie Germans massed in the woods north-cast of the lake, out the advancing infantry were caught b V( the crossfire of our guns and were driven 'back, leaving a large number of dead ,Bv the evening ave had driven them' back to the German first line, havin.r taken many prisoners. Soma Saxon prisoners accused the Prussian artillervmen of hnng on their trenches when there was a possibility of the Saxons surrendering.

Among the acts of gallantry at Festu'bert, an officer was seen lying- on the up of a mine crater, where he was hidden from the Germans but could be bombed. The space between him and amines was swept by rifle-fire, and when he gave, signs of life a " non-t-om." under cover of fire from British snipers, crawled out with a rope which he made fast to the wounded officer, who was slowly dragged to a British trench. The "non-com." stayed behind, his place being continuously bombed, until later he was able to crawl to safety.

FRENCH AERIAL SUCCESS. VIOLENT GERMAN ATTACKS. FRENCH BURIED IN TRENCHES. Received June 23, 1.40 a.m. Paris, June 22. Official: The situation at is unchanged. Our air squadron bombarded German aviation parks and set fire to four hanguars, and hit two aeroplanes mid a captive balloon.

The Ormaiß on tlie western outskirts of Argonne violently attacked on Sunday evening with asphyxiating projectiles. Our lines were bent baik at some points, two French companies being buried in the. wrecked trenches, but an immediate! counter-attack onalded us to recover almost the whole position. FURTHER FRENCH PROGRESS. TOUTS Astf>. TREN T CHES"TAKEN. FINE WORK BY BRITISH CAVALRY. "• Paris, Juno 21. A communique states: We carried further trendies, and are now approaching the north-west of Souchez. In Lorraine, near Reillon, we followed up our advantage and captured all the enemy's forts and a trench along a front of 1500 yards. The enemy's counter-attack dispersed our scouts, who had advanced close to Chazelels, Goudreaxon, and Les Remabois, the enemy having abandoned the territory. All the German trenches were full of corpses. In the region of Le Bon Homme we carried by assault a spur of the Calvaire du lion Homme and readied the outskirts of Le Bon Homme. We advanced 'beyond the cemetery at Metzeral. Hand-to-hand fighting continues. To the south-west we gained ground and took 15(1 prisoners. Sir John French inspected the 3rd Cavalry Division and thanked them for their wonderful performance in the trenches at Y'pres. He described the gas attacks a« dastardly. The gas came as a bolt from the 'blue, and many of the troops dropped dead on the spot. It was impossible to see anything, as the darkness was rendered more opaque by the asphyxiating fumes. A certain amount of confusion wan unavoidable, but the troops recovered with superb quickness, and filled the gap in face of a wall of gas miles long and y,ards high. Tliev could not lie too highly praised, lie especially thanked the :"!rd Dragoons for their work at the Chateau llooge. As be was leaving, the men broke the rallies and cheered and waved their caps. It wa.s an impres-iv picture, Sir John French in the middle <>f his men, with bis band stiffly at the salute, and indicative of the perfect trust and loyalty e\i-ting between the troops and their commanders.