IN THE WEST.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 October 1915, Page 8

IN THE WEST.

TOE CHAMPAGNE MBff&LCT. a neve eoaipQ. Paris, Oct. 22. A correspondent who visited the Champagne for three days Btates that on the around recently won by the Stench/-as the result of fire a large area was absolutely swept of vegetation.: Over thfee million shells Wiere dropped in a small district in three days, excavating pits from five to seventy feet deep and in some cases 150 feet wide. Hie whole countryside is covered with white powder, the result of explosions. Many German prisoners are insane. The French were engaged for days in clearing up the battlefield. The excavations showed war stores and revealed dead Germans huddled together. It was as if a new Pompeii had been unearthed. The Germans had woven the whole place with barbed wire. The French spent two months preparing the attack. A communique states that the German bombardment continues very violently westward of Tahure eastward of the Butte, Mesnil, and Ville-sur-Tourbe district. We everywhere repulsed by repressive fire, which was clearly very effective against batteries and trenches. The explosion of a French mine in the Argonne destroyed an enemy post.