IN THE WEST.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 April 1916, Page 5

IN THE WEST.

CROWN PRINCE'S STRATEGY. ✓ ' j COLONEL REPINGTON'S VIEWS. ! Times and Sydney Sun Services. SiOndon, April 5. , Colonel Repington says that Verdun the chief theatre of fighting on the Western front. Here the main masses of the German artillery are posted at Septarges and Beaumont in the north. The flank positions are at Avocourt and Malancourt on the west and at Vaux on the east. The east is being utilised to aid,the northern attack. The German position on the Woevro plan is bad. Since the great Vaux attack failed, the Crown IBrinee has resorted to 1113 favorite metliod of disconnected partial attacks, as in the Argonne, where lie once attacked with 26 battalions belonging to 21 different regiments. Similar .attacks liave been delivered at Verdun, where the enemy is using his divisions one bv one.

In the Argonne the Crown Prince received all the men lie needed, aa lie was lioping to connect his name with victory; now the entire German line has been drarned to prevent his failure. But for his TDirtli he would have been relieved of his command long since.

ON THE VAUX FRONT. , ENEMY'S FUTILE TACTICS. - Paris, April 5. A semi-official account, describing the attack preceding the flight ot the German remnant to the Craufleur wood, says the enemy's object was to turn our position »n the Douaumont plateau. The majority of the attackers were annihilated before reaching our lines. It is noteworthy that troops of inferior quality advanced shoulder to shoulder in the fcremoet ranks, and were sacrificed to facilitate the advance of the second masses, composed of better fighters. These brutal and futile tactics show a disregard for human material contrasting with the French methods of sparing our men. The enemy's losses were never so terrible as during the recent repulses at Avocourt, Douaumont, and Vaux.

FRENCH REPORT. SUCCESSFUL AIR WORK; Paris, April 5. 'A communique says: We progressed'ih the communication trenolies northward of the Cailette wood. Our scouting aeroplanes in the Verdun district brought down a doublemotored aeroplane near Hautes Forneaux pond. Another enemy machine fell near the Tilly wood, a third dived vertically to the ground. A French air squadron dropped fourteen bombs on the Natillois railway station aild five on the Damvillers bivouacß.