PRUSSIANS MOWED DOWN.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 March 1916, Page 5

PRUSSIANS MOWED DOWN.

FEARFUL SCENES OF SLAUCHTER. Received March 6, 5.5 p.m. > London, March 5. The Daily Chronicle's Paris correspondent says that Douaumont village has changed hands many times. The. Brandenburgcrs, Pomeranians, and Hanoverian reinforcements debouched from the north-west and north-cast, converging on Douaumont and Vaux. The enemy losses were so heavy that new battalions had to be brought u», but they were swept back. As it is freezing cold the wcunded are bound to suffer unspeakable agonies. The enemy attacking Vaux reached the barbed wire and met a terrific fire from seventy-lives and mitrailleuses. Four thousand corpses are lying near the entanglements. Many Prussians were driven on by their officers with revolvers. They climbed over piles of corpses of their comrades and were then mowed down. CONTINUATION OF REPORT. Reeeived Marcli 6, 8.45 p.m. London, March 5. After several failures, the enemy, attacking Douaumont on Thursday, penetrated the village street, bringing their extremity into line with the broken walls. The French recaptured the village on Friday, while the Germans on Saturday again penetrated the northern end. A violent bombardment on the western battlefield was meanwhile kept up by the German guns at Mont Faucon and Forg Hill. ENEMY'S STATEMENT. Received March (1, 5.45 p.m. London, March 5. A German communique says tiiat the French on Saturday evening opened a heavy fire at several points, particularly between the Mr-use and Moselle, where the French artillery bombarded the Douaumont eectbr with special violence. In order to avoid unnecessary losses we. evacuated a trench north-east of Badonviller LATEST FRENCH REPORT. Received Mareh.fi, 9.10 p.m. Paris, March 6. A communique states: A very violent bombardment took place between Haudremont and Douaumont, but the enemy did not renew their attacks. We «tii'l hold the outskirts of Douaumont. The Germans attacked cast of Vacher-au-Ville. and were completely repulsed. Our aeroplanes bombed Conflans station.

FIELD WORKS ROUND VERDUN, HOW THE PORTRESS WAS SAVED EARLY IN THE WAR. For the Germans Verdun is one of the great disappointments of the war. On this part of the line, the rock on which their long-considered scheme! of invasion foundered was not, as it might have been, the great fortresses of the frontier, but the fact that the Germans have never been able to get near them. They have been foiled, not by forts but by forces. They knew and trusted in tte destructive power of their giant Krupp guns; but in the territories of Belfort, the Vosges, Lorraine, Le Woevre, and the heights of the Mouse they have not had a chance. The generals and their armies have always been able to keep the Germans at arm's length, and not for the first time in the history of the world, men and moral have triumphed over matter and machines. The French cupolas that were to have been pounded to pieces arc still untouched. Verdun itself is even stronger than at the beginning of the war, since the army that has been fighting in front of it is practically intact, and has been hardened and heartened by experience of warfare. Its guns are of the first order, and quite capable of holding their own with the German heavy artillery, if it ever gets within shooting distance. But that, as things stand at present, is highly improbable. In spite of all its efforts the army of the Crown Prince has never been able to get nearer to the town than the line that passes through Nontfaucon (in the north-east of the Argonne), Forges, Oynes, Etain, Fresnes-en-Woevre, and a point on the Meuse near Saint Mihiel. At no point is the line nearer than 10 miles from the centre o fthe fortress, and there are no signs of any improvement in the Germans' chances of ever reaching it. At tho beginning of the war the French armies under General Sarrail shared in the fighting on the Belgian frontier and in the neighbourhood of Longwy, and, in accordance with the general strategic scheme, withdrew upon Verdun. While the British and thf rest of the French armies were retiring to their positions for the battle of the Marne this army fell back without pressure from the enemy and was at no time troubled during its retreat. The retirement was completed on September 10, when the right of this army rested upon Verdun and its left upon Bar-el-Duc, almost immediately south. The line threatened the flank of the Crown Prince's army, and at the same time afforded protection to Verdun. Such, more or less, were the positions it occupied during the battle of the Marne. How greatly it contributed to precipitate the retreat after the decisive day of the battle was shown by the fury of the assault delivered by the Crown Prince upon the whole of this front on the very last day of the struggle which dispelled the nightmare of occupation weighing upon Paris. The Crown Prince made a terri-. fie attempt to batter his way through the Fort de Troyon, but failed. The enemy was more successful to the south at Saint Mihie], and it was on the last day of the'liattle of the Marne that the general learned that the Germans had succeeded in crossing the Meuse in his rear at this point and threatened to cut his array in two, to envelop Verdun and a large portion of the field anrly defending it. The prompt dispatch of two cavalry corps to the threatened point succeeded in stemming the German rush, and elsewhere along "the battleline, although in considerable numerical inferiority General Sarrail was opposed by the Third, Tenth, Sixteenth, and Thirteenth Wurtemberg corps and five or six divisions of reserve. Yet he succeeded in defending himself with such vigor that, although complete victory was not attained, the Third German Corps was obliged to retire in a state of extreme exhaustion, having sustained heavy losses lin killed, wounded, and prisoners, and i having abandoned much ot its materiaL