IN THE WEST.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 March 1916, Page 5

IN THE WEST.

RENEWAL OF THE BATTLE. ANOTHER VIOLENT' ATTACK. Paris, March 3. Tt is sewi-tKcistlly stated that the battle at Verdun wag renewed on Thursday. The enemy operations marked a serious recrudescence. As we foresaw, this is the second phase of the most violent efforts the Germans have every attempted against us. All the evidence shows that Verdun was chosen for attack becouse the Wooded region hampered aerial reconnaisance. W« were aware of the tremendous preparations for three months, but possibly did not realise their full importance. | Yesterday's attack was extremely violent. The enemy progressed over broken ground, which was already covered with corpses in enormous numbers, but he nowhere gained a footing in our trenches. We took the •fullest advantage of the three days' respite, and the issue may be awaited with the fullest confidence. The first act in the battle failed and the second act will not meet with better success. A communique states that the enemy's attacks and bombardment were continued yesterday (Thursday) evening with redoubled violence. After several fruitless attempts, which were repulsed with cruel losses, the Germans succeeded in penetrating the village of Douaumont, ,where obstinate fighting continues. The Germans attacked the village of Vstux at the same time. The assaults, which were directed from the north and northeast, were shattered by curtains of lire and machine-gun fire, and the enemy had to retire, leaving a great number of corpses in our barbed. wire entanglements. Our curtains of fire at the Woevre during the night prevented the enemy from debouching after an intense bombardment. West of the Meuse the enemy artillery is active in the region of Maiincourt and Haucourt.

CAKED WITH MUD AND BLOOD. ... GRAPHIC NARRATIVE. La Figaro publishes ft thrilling rtory of the Verdun battle. The Germans were reported east of the wood at three in the morning and flares and rockets lit up the hattle-fieid As. if it were broad daylight. The enemy was clearly seen advancing in serried masses, singing guttural war-hymns. We lay motionless and silent in the presence of the stirring spectacle. When our machine-guns opened the Germans fell in rows, but continued to advance through a hurricane of shot and shell. We were stupefied on hearing that the enemy had penetrated the fort. Our sergeant wept with rage and demanded what we were waiting for. Soon the order came to fix bayonets, and we leaped over the sodden ground shouting. The bayonet fight Beemed interminable. Our men fell fast, but the Germanß faster. We cleared them out gladly rested. Our uniforms were caked with mud and blood. When the French evacuated Samogneux two companies of infantry were isolated in a group of houses. A youthful captain organised the resistance against overwhelming odds. Two Prussian battalions twice attempted to rush the position, but were repulsed, losing 200 killed and 500 wounded. The defenders were seriously reduced and soon were without ammunition. They sent a message to the colonel that they intended to cut their way out, and" made a sudden sally, momentarily disconcerting the Germans. When the defenders were almost overcome reinforcements saved them. During a critical moment of the struggle at Douaumont a regiment, dazed by five hours' incossant shell fire, which had weakened their centre, was about to 1 yield. A portion fell back and threw themselves on the ground. Reaux, the commandant, seized a rifle, advanced under a hail of shrapnel, stood alone on a crest and shouted: "On your feet; form fours." The men obeyed and Reaux led them back to the firing-line. T.e Temps says that probably the reason for tlie relative calm at Verdun was the necessity of the Germans reconstituting units, and possibly also the question of munitions. GERMAN REPORTS, Paris, March 3. A German communique states: We advanced south of Douaumont fort, taking 1000 prisoners aud capturing six heavy guns. London, March 3. A German communique says: Southeast of the Ypres Canal the English penetrated the position wljich we took on February 14. The British broke through a small front to the advanced trenches, but were immediately expelled. They still maintain themselves at isolated places of the bastion. On the height* of the Meuse. after vigorous artillery preparation, we cleared the village of Douaumont and advanced our lines west and south of the village and fort into more favorable conditions. Our airmen bombarded the French troops in the fortress region at Verdun. Lieut. Immelmann, east of Douai, shot down his ninth enemy aeroplane, which was a British biplane.

PRESS OPINION. BRANDKXBURGERS STILL TRAPPED. Received March 4, ;'.5 p.m. London, March 3. Newspapers speculate on the significance of German communiques, and some arc inclined te the opinion that they claim to mean that the Hermans have driven in a wedge, tlms securing a salient south-west of the fort, though the French still prevent relief being sent to the Brandenbuj'gers. Paris. March 3, Le Matin states that the Bvindenburgers liavp been able to prolong resistance bv means of a narrow communication path north of the fort. DAMAGED ARTILLERY. * Received March 5, 5.5 p.m. Amsterdam, March 5. The Echo de Beige says that eight long trains of artillery and material that have been rendered useless through the hard work at Verdun passed through SB t? Duß!«y«rfi

AT DOUAUjVIONT.

FIERCE.HAND-TO-HAND FIGHTING. J FOR POSSESSION OF A VILLAGE. if- Received March 5, 5.5 p.mi <> Paris, March 4. The fort at Douaumont is perched 90 feet above the village. When the Germans were driven back on Wednesday the enemy artillery resumed a shattering fire, ploughing the ground in all directions and reducing the rocks to powder with a thousand monster shells. The Crown Prince then ordered a last attack with fresh Prussian lirigades, who almost shared their comrades' fate, but they gained a footing on the extreme edge of the plateau. Latest information states that the Germans hold one side of the main street at Douaumont, and the Frenchmen the other. Fighting is proceeding with bloody vehemence. First the French and then the Germans gain a few yards in .the deadly struggle for possession of the village. General Petain, the French commander at Verdun, is a picturesque figure. He has risen from Colonel to General since the war. General Petain did useful work in the retreat from Charleroi, and brilliantly handled his men during the Artois offensive in May and the Champagne offensive in September. A communique says: We carried out a destructive artillery fire on the enemy's works east of -Neuville and south of Bury-an-Bac. There is hot fighting near Douflumont. We held the upper part of the knoll on the northern slope whereon the village is situated. A sharp counter-attack enabled us to regain ground in the immediate vicinity of the village. The bombardment is maintained at an extremely violent pitch west and east of the Meuse, also at the Woevre. We concentrated an artillery fire on the enemy assembled near Beaumont, and dispersed a column on the marcli. We brought down an albatross aeroplane in the vicinity of Douaumont and took the occupants prisoner. We attacked and captured several German trenches east.of Seppais, and the enemy's counterattacks failed to-dislodge us. GERMAN ACTIVITY. THE ORDEAL AT VERDUN. Time* and Sydney Sun Services. Received March 4, 5.5 p.m. London, March 3. Berne reports that there is intense activity at Belfort, where the enemy are concentrating numerous troops aiid enormous quantities of war material and heavy artillery, presaging aa offensive on Paris. German prisoners and wounded are prostrated and dazed by their awful ordeal at Verdun. Many are nerve-shaken and cry piteously. They give lapst graphic details of various phases of the battle. One regiment was ordered to advance over thick sticky clay. They stumbled and fell helplessly, the mitrailleuses mowing them down. A nlimber stated that they recalled Serbia when they saw Verdun. They wtre told that they were assisting in the final victory, and went mto battle full of confidence. Their regiment was attacking the ridge erest south of Beaumont. Half were killed as soon as they left cover, and the remainder went into the hells of the furnace. Most of them fell, and a few were captured. ' MINING ACTIVITY. BY THE BRITISH. Received March 5, 5.5 p.m. London, March 4. General Sir Douglas Haig raports: We exploded five mines near the Ilohenzollern redoubt and occupied the craters. One of them contains the enemy's main mining shaft. We consolidated our positions on the Ypres-Comines Canal taken yesterday, including two hundred yards o: the enemy's original trenches. HEAVY EXPENDITURE OF MUNITIONS. FRENCH POLITICIAN'S OPINION. Becelved March 5, 5."> p.m. Paris, March 4. L'Eclair says that during the first week's bombardment northward of Verdun the Germans expended upwards of 400,000 projectiles daily of every calibre. M. Qemenceau, in L'Hommn Knchaine, says that if Germany fails at- Verdun the issue of the war will then be dpcided. A communique says that a fairly active bombardment took place at night at different sectors in the Verdun region, but there was no infantry action on the enemy's part. We prevented the enemy from occupying the crater formed by a mine explosion at Les Eparges.

A FRENCH REPORT. 2ATTLE RAGING HOTLY Received March 6, 12.10 a.m. Paris. March 6. A communique sayii that there is an intense enemy bombardment at Hautmimont wood. An infantry attack failed. The Germans regained a footing in Douaumont village from which we ejected them on Friday evening. Desperate fighting continues for possession of the village, with alternate ebb and Cow, A GERMAN REPORT. CAPTURE OF GUNS. Received March 8, 11 p.m. Zurich, March 5. A German communique says that the French attacked the village of Bouauraont and the lines adjoining, but were repulsed. Partially t'pse range fighting, and they sustained heavy loss. We captured one thousand unwounded men. Our booty since February 22 hu teen lit em IM Mwtoie-gum. 7- r -

THE «UTLOOK HOPEFUL,

... NEWSPAPERS CONFIDENT. (Received March 5, 5.5 p.m. London, March '4. The Daily Telegraph, in a leading article, says that nothing could be more hopeful than the present position at Verdun, firstly, because the French, with iademitable gallantry and a persistence which has been the admiration of the whole world, repulsed the attack; secondly, because the costliness of the attacks tells tremendously against the Teuton hopes for the future. The Germans' losses have been thrice those of the French. A series of determined attacks is likely to-continue north and east, and perhaps west, of the fortress, and we may anticipate a period of intense activity, which we shall wntch with anxiety, but with strong hope. The Saturday Review says that some square miles of new territory are in German hands, but our allies have broken this_ attack and gained 'in morale and confidence. After so ninny months in the trenches they have never been surer of victsry. EFFECT IN SCANDINAVIA. CENTRAL POWERS DEPRESSED. Dr. Dillon, writing from Christiania, says that the tremendous onslaught at Verdun has been rightly construed throughout Scandinavia as Germany's final desperate effort to score a victory before the dejection which is now spreading among the peoples of the Central Powers paralyses their waning strength, which is strained to snapping point. A decisive German success would have a far-reaching political effect with certain neutrals. The change of feeling in Sweden has been enormous, but Germany's failure is followed by renewed peace proposals which, though unacceptable, are more moderate than any that have yet emanated from Berlin. GERMAN VIEWS. Colonel Mora-lit) in the Berliner Tageblatt, commenting on Verdun, says it is a sad part of a sanguinary war that two nations which could rule the world together and promote kultur are destroying each other. These two peoples had no grave reason to attack each other. German people would not allow themselves to be blam,ed for bringing on the war, and they must also not blame the French people. A few thousand men originated the war. A VIEW OF THE FIGIJT, Reecived March 5, 5.5 p.m. Amsterdam, March 4. The T.okal Anzciger's correspondent, writing from Lorraine heights, says:—"Even from this distant point we could recognise the fierceness of the battle." lie describes the hell on the height of the ridge to the left of Douaumont, where the French artillery extended for several kilometres. "Our heaviest artillery was directed upon them on Sunday,'and columns of dust and smoke as high as a house rose from the bursting shells. It is almost incomprehensible that men were able to live there. We could also follow the fight on the Woevre plain. Numerous wounded passed, and all looked confident and pleased that the trench war was finally at an end and that the grand days of August and September, 1914, had apparently returned, when our masses, crushing everything before them, flooded France.