FRENCH VICTORY.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 December 1915, Page 7

FRENCH VICTORY.

FIGHTING IN CHAMPAGNE, HOW THE GERMAN FRONT WAS PIERCED. ENEMY'S FALLING FORTUNES. London, Oct, 8. Wounded soldiers now arriving in Paris tell vivid stories of the great victory obtained iby the French in Champagne. Mr. G. H. Perris, the special correspondent of the Daily Chronicle in Paris, sends through one of the best connected accounts. He writes: "After three days of an indescribable cannonade in 'beautiful autumn weather a fine rain had just begun to fall, when, at 9.15 on Saturday morning, the order for the general assault along a front of 17 miles from the Moronvillers Plateau to Servon on the Aiane, was given. Little could be seen at any point for mist, but it soon became evident that the first enemy positions had been battered out of and their defenders either killed, wounded, or stupefied. "The French losses in this advance were commparativcly light, and it now seems clear that the great haul of uninjured prisoners was due chiefly to the moral effects of the preparatory bombardment. As soon as the assault was under way the artillery was raised to more distant objectives, and, with a fleet of raiding aeroplanes, began to work havoc on the German rear, and especially along the railway. There is ground for believing that some enemy units were thus deprived for a time of their supplies. "The first group to > lean forward consisted of the Colonial Division, commanded by Lord Kitchener's one-time adversary and friend, General Marcliand, with a Moroccan division and a brigade of Zouaves and the Foreign Legion. Marchand, who is mud beloved by his men, bad addressed a few bracing words to them, and then took a position in front of the line, as though he were a sub-ofßcer. Cane in hand and pipe in mouth he gave the signal, strode forward, and in few minutes was struck down by the explosion of a shell. With a fragment of steel in his side he is now under treatment at Suippes. Happily this wound is not serious, and a speedy recovery is anticipated. 'Within a few minutes, like a vast blue wave, the French infantrv were over the first German trenches. Everywhere dazed groups of the enemy threw up their hands crying, 'Kamaradl Pa# kapout!' in sign of surrender. At one point alone the Africans took 2000 men, 11 cannons, and much ammunition and supplies. The best progress was made to the north of Souain. This village lies in a wooded saucer of the hilh, and the advance had been directed on three lines along and be9ide the high road from Souain to Somme-Py, four miles to the north. To the left of the road, starting from near the Souain Mill, the troops seized two strong German works, and progressed a mile and a quarter along the supporting trenches. To their east their comrades advanced a mile and a half along the Somme-Pv road, as far as Hill 185 and the Navarin Farm.

THE GREAT ADVANCE. "On their right other African battalions reached and crossed the Tclnire road, where they found a Gernian light field railway, and captured pome stores. Further east certain Savoy and Dauphiny regiments dashed forward from Perthes and reached the Trou Brioot Mill without much loss. Here they took possession of a strong German work, and at noon passed the Tahure road. In the afternoon they completed an advance of two and a half miles, digging themselves in on Hill 193. which is the southern part of the sharp rise called the Butte de Souain.

"On the more easterly part of the field the German resistance was more serious, probably because it was here that the chief German offensive took place in the spring. To the north of what was once the farm and hamlet of Beausejour, a place already famous for Homeric combats, the Germans were powerfully established on the Butte de Mesnil, marked on the maps as Hill 183. Here a vaßt glac'l9 had been constructed, presenting five successive lines of trenches along a slope of 460 feet. "This hillside, ehurned up by thousands of high explosive shells, was captured at some cost, and the attackers then advanced across the PerthesCernay road as far as the farm called Maisons de Champagne. Beyond Massiges and Ville-sur-Tourke tlie colonial troops had a harder task before the hand-shaped spurs of Hill Ifll. and the gain did not extend beyond the hamlet of La Justice. On Saturday night the new French line ran from near Auberive on the Suippe through a point called the Epinp de Vedegrange, halfwav between St. Souplet and St. Hilaire-le-Grand, and then through the Navarin farm and Tahurc to the farm of La Justice.

"Here generally in front of the second German positions (he advance was checked, and, although lighting continued, nothing new was reported except an increasing roll of prisoners, until Wednesday and Thursday, when the French troops managed to ell'ect a lodgment in several parts of the eneinv trenches to the west of Xavarin and the west of Tahurc Hill. BASTION OF DEFEAT. "In the former case the assailants succeeded in breaking right through, hut were then stopped l>y frontal and flank lire. The survivors had to retreat, but entrants into the second German position 011 the hills covering the Py and Dormoise valleys are still held. A breathing space was also given to the French front south of the hamlet of Ripont yesterday by the capture of an important German work oddly called the 'Bastion of Defeat,' and some progress was also made further east.

"The redoubtable band-shaped plateau of Mesnil, to the north-west of Massi-g-es, now seems to lie wholly In the possession of the French. There arc to-day many signs of a break in the proud confidence of the German army and people, and even of the beginnings of panic. All the more necessary is it that the Allies should possess themselves in quiet patience. "livery offensive must give rise to private anxieties, but there is no reason why it should give rise to exaggerated and feverish expectations. There is now a relative calm, and it is idle to speculate as to what will follow. We know that lines thought invincible can be broken, and 20,000 prisoners and 100 cannon taken in a single day, if everything has been well designed and prepared. That the fortunes of the enemy are falling is shown by the fact that neither in Artois nor Champagne has he attempted any considerable couaterstroW

''Simultaneously with the order to attack, seven mines, each containing lflOQ pounds of powder, exploded," said ft man present at the Souehez battle. They completed the destruction of the German trenches in front pf the Hshaped wood, already badly battered by its long bombardment by our artillery, in the confusion which followed our men leapt from the trenches and pursued the Germans, who were (bolting through the wood, The sections remaining behind explored the ravaged trenches and underground shelters, which were often twenty feet deep, As they had no desire to go down into these holes, whence it was unlikely they would come out jilive, our men dropped bombs and fired their rifles through the openiftgs, eifectually preventing the occupants from coming out and taking us in the rear. "The bulk of the men meanwhile kept close on the heels of the Germans, who were running like hares, and captured the second trench in the middle of the wood. Some went further still, crossing the Souehez brook behind the Germans or going up the sunken road to Angres; but the German command soon pulled itself together and brought lip strong reserves. They tried to get round the wood and cut us off, but our officers defeated the movement- by calling us back to the first line captured. "During the night the Germans fortified themselves in the wood, but at daybreak our artillery ended their labors. The evening before, the wood looked very much like other woods, but in a few minutes it had changed as if by enchantment; one after another the trees were mown down by shells,. Soon nothing was left but stumps emerging from a jungle of branches. "The Qerman artillery was not idle either, but sent us a steady stream of 210 and 105 millimetre shells, which ploughed up the ground but did not do ug much harm. For a change they sent an occasional blast of shrapnel, which was borne with perfect philosophy by our men. Since they have had the new helmets they do not pay any attention to head wounds. One was hit by a fragment of shell, which tore through his helmet but only grazed his scalp. "At 1 p.m. the guns stopped, and we were ordered to attack again. The Germans had placed machine-guns on one of the flanks, ibut we soon put them out of action. It was no easy matter going through the wood. The men tripped up over the branches, but the shell-holes proved a welcome shelter from the ma-chine-guns. At first we' met few of the enemy, but got a galling fire from ma j chine-guns cleverly concealed in pits covered by steel plates, which made them practically impregnable, the barrels alone protruding through a narrow slit level with the ground, and invisible from a distance. Our men, nothing daunted, from behind tree stumps and from the pits, kept up a steady shower of bombs, and soon drove the Germans out of the wood, over the brook, and 'the H-shaped wood' was again ours, this time for good."