IN THE WEST.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 March 1916, Page 5

IN THE WEST.

HEAVY FIGHTING, GERMAN ASSAULTS REPULSED. __ t P>eceived March 29, 8.f5 p.m, London, March 28. I General Haig reports that in spite of the heavy artillery fire we held the ground captured at fct. Eloi. We shelled the enemy positions opposite Loos a# Hulluch, and facing Aix Noulette. A communique says that after a violent bombardment on our position from Avoncourt to Bcthincourt, the Germans at three o'clock in the afternoon strongly attacked tlie Haucourt-Malancourt front. The successive waves of assault were all repulsed, with heavy enemy loss frpm our curtain of infantry fire. AT VERDUN. ANOTHER RHEIMS. GERMANS DESTROYING THE TOWN. Paris, March 28. Mr. Simms, correspondent of the United Press of America, has visited Verdun and says:— ''The Germans are bent on the destruction of the city, and daily hurl 3:10 of the largest incendiary shells on the business and residential districts. Several fires are raging simultaneously and Verdun is, becoming another Eheims. Tlie scene is gripping in its awfulness] The conflagration in the city is accompanied by a deafening roar from Douaumont, which the French are shelling. The scene resembles Vesuvius as the German shells, exploding on the southern slopes, flash out like huge smoke geysers. Officers say that they ask nothing better than that the Germans should continue their attacks, as each attempt increases their losses. The Verdun sector i s like a giant ant-hill, on which men land transport wagons swarm unceasingly. The French guns and munitions seem unlimited."