IN THE WEST.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 May 1916, Page 5

IN THE WEST.

AT THE MEUSE. THE NEW OFFENSIVE. A COMPLETE FAILURE. Paris, May 10. A semi-official report says that the German objective west of the Meuse is still Hill 304. Three German attacks on Monday night in dense formation attempted ft frontal and enveloping assault, but all completely failed with heavy losses. -Renewed attempts on Tuesday met the same fate. It is believed the Germans employed three fresh divisions and that all were decimated. Thus, after Ave days' furious assault's costing enprmouß sacrifices, the recrudescence of the Verdun offensive with unp'ecedented violence leaves the enemy exactly where he started.

BATTLE OF VERDUN. INTERESTING SIDELIGHTS. MARVELLOUS TRANSPORT WORK. deceived May 11, 9.50 p.m. Paris, May 10. Le Matin says that a revelation of the inner history of Verdun shows that the French were only aware on February 21 of the gravity of the situation, previous loeal German offensives having puzzled the French and hindered concentration. General Petain was only sent tMther after the battle had been in progress several days. When the storm broke, only GO.OOO men opposed 200,000. No railway iiad been constructed to Verdun, and therefore it waa thought prudent to evacuate the right bank of the Meuse. Then General Castelnau arrived, said on his own initiative reversed the decision, and ordered General IPetain to hold the Douaumont plateau at all costs. On February 24 they transported thence, in ten hours, a whole army corps from Bar-le-Duc, employing 4700 motors, the men going into action as they a*rived. AN ORGY OF BUTCHERY. how the germans were mown down;, a graphic story. London, March 3. The rage and fury of the battle for this plateau is graphically described fey |:>ii eye-witness writing in Petit Parisic;; from an observation post in front of the Douaumont range:— "The German infantry, being unable to attack the crests, which they covet, a bombardment of the position has been ordered. The summit of the crest which stops their road is the special target for. their artillery. "Without ceasing, shells of every. calibre are bursting with tremendous hubbub all around us, and the air is torn by incessant explosions. Thousands of projectiles are flying ia all directions, some whistling, others howling and moaning, unite in one infernal roar. From time to time an aerial torpedo passes, making a noise like a gigantic noisy motor-car. "All these missiles of destruction flying over a fairly wide region burst one upon the other, so dense is the fire. Shell fragments fly on every side from the cloud of smoke and earth and snow, which soon becomes so persistent that it finally covers the earth like a tbjfck fog. "With a tremendous thud a giant shell bursts quite close to our observation post, breaking the telephone wire and interrupting all communications with our batteries. A man gets out at once for repairs, crawling along on his stomach through all this place of bursting mines and shells. It seems quite impossible that he should escape in the rain of shell which is falling with disquieting rapidity. The German artillery evidently is putting forth its last effort' before the attack which must come soon. The enemy's shell expenditure exceeds anything imaginable; there has never been such a bombardment in war. "Our man seems to be enveloped in explosions, and shelters himself from time to time in shell craters which lie thick upon the ground, one upon the other, finally reaches a less stormy spot, mends up his wires, and then, as it would be madness to try to return to shelter, settles down into a big crater and' waits for the storm to pass. "Little by little the German fire slackens. The smoke, the clouds of white dust and pulverised snow fade away, and we see before us an indescribable scene. A short distance away there had been lines of support trenches. Nothing remains; they have been levelled. Here and there is a vestige of a parapet, but of barbed wire entanglement not a trace. The earth seems as flat as though there had never been a bombardment. ADVANCE OF MASSED GERMANS. "Beyond, in the valley, dark -masses arc moving over the suow-covercd ground. Jt is German infantry advancing in packed formation along the valley to the attack. Wo telephone through to the batteries and the ball begins. The sight is hellish. In the distance, in the valley and upon the slopes, regiments spread out, and as they deploy fresh troops come pouring in. . "There is a whistle over our heads. It is our first shell on its way. It falh right in the middle of the enemy infantry. We telephone through, tolling our batteries of their hit, and a deluge of heavy shells is poured upon the .enemy. Their position becomes critical. Through glasses wc can see men maddened, men covered with earth and blood, falling one upon the other. "When the first wave of the assault ia decimated, the ground it dotted with heaps of corpses, hut the second wave is already pressing on. It tries in vain to got through our lire. It is driven back, and again discovered by our fire; once more our shells carve awful gaps in their ranks. Nevertheless, like an army of rats, the Bosches continue to advance in spite of our marmites. "Then our heavy artillery bursts forth in furv. The whole valley is turned into a volcano, and its exit is stopped by the barrier of the slain." After a series of attacks of this nature, Ridge 346, in front of Douaumont, was flnaHy carried, and the bloody tide of battle lapped the base of Douaumont ridge. Here attack after attack of Intmtf, itrtt«tol «j Ihf tteffi, «!/, ti

melt away under tbe pitiless French MM tflWfy fire, until finally a. seventh ww*. of the assault carried the 24th Brandon ' burg Regiment up to the crest and tbe) fort dominating it yesterday morning. In this white heat point of the far' . nace all notion of losses seems to iuwaj been engulfed in the orgy of butchery— , a <butchery which, for the Moment at any rate, was in vain. * >A famous French corps, which, like the Prussian Guard, is always at tbe point whero the danger is g/eatwt, launched an immediate series of counter* attacks, and by the afternoon the Donaumont position waa again in the handa of the French, who successfully withstood German attempts to dislodge them. Elsewhere, also, the same vigor of their counter-attack has ensured the French the maintenance of the Champ* ntuville and the Poivre Ridge position.

THE VENGEANCE OF FRANCE. VERDUN PEASANTRY'S JOY Z» GERMAN LOSSES. Paris, March 10. . J.very now and then at long and raw Intervals you may meet a few civilian* • . on the roads round Verdun (writes Join A. Raphael). They are in little group* of two or three as a nil?, but sometime* one meets one alone, a woman, an old woman usually, with brown faoe, sturdy tread, scanty grey hair, and the fierce look of an old she wolf who has snapped and snarled to the bitter end, and is now forced to go. Just euch an old woman wandered into a motor transport yesterday. "Where are you going, mother?*' she was asked. "That is not the way to safety." "I am not seeking safety," she Mid."I am going down the hill there to where the river runs red, with red lee on it. I want to see this and dfc happy." This old woman is typical of the spirit of the whole countryside. The peasantry are absolutely fearless, almost i»conscious of danger. They know what the Germans are. They have lived in expectation of a great revenge. The bill is being paid now, and they know . it, and they are fiercely, bitterly, y cruelly, calmly exultant. This ia their moment. And it is true that the broken ice in the rivers is red, and that the hillsides are heaped thickly with walls of half-frozen German corpses. Thera are no words to convey a pteture of the ghastly devastation tbe utter misery of this whole countryside around Verdun. You read the word* I'Encniy forced back with heavy loaa" in the communique. I have told yon of • the slippery, greasy clay of the inhospitable hillsides, the stony ravines, we, little woods so cut about and battered, shattered, splintered, and charred fcy artillery that they look as though gtattt jaws had chewed them arid' rejected them. You have read of villages in which hardly a house remains whole, but I wonder (whether you have ret&td that the ruins of the villages have beta shot to pieces again and again >uiHU they look like the very abomination of desolation. | MILES OF HORROR. . And now, in and out along these, mOta of horror, the peasantry are wandering about to drink the scene in and quants the bitter thirst of hatred. These people of Lorraine have been under the German heel for a generation. They have not forgotten for a single moment durfng '44 years, and vengeance is theirs at last. If anybody doubts that the Hun ia being driven out of France at last, let him talk to a peasant near Verdun. He need not even talk to him, he need but ■ say, "I am an Englishman," and bold out his hand. The Lorraine will grain it until it hurts, and his eyes will gleam fiercely. "Ah, the pigs!" he will say; "we have got them at last," and he will stumble on to feed his bruised heart on the meal of ghastliness round him. There is reason to hope that yesterday, the critical day of the fifljir for Verdun, broke the enemy's offensive. The offensive is not over by any mean*. There will be more and possibly even fiercer attacks, but there is less calculation than despair behind them, and both our Allies and the enemy realise it. ' The fight between Douaumont and-Vans, the fight in the village of Vauaitaelf, the desperate charges which were'hurled back three, four, and five times, until the enemy rush of regiments in close order was literally blown into fragments by what the communique euphemistically calls "curtain fire," and which look like an explosion from the mouth of hell, resulted not only in no enemy advance, but in his losing the few yards of ground he bad taken before. The French counter-attack will begin >: when tbe French command chooses. The enemy has lost the power of initiative. The Germans are paying in carnage for the music, but at last it is the French, who call the tune. Yesterday's attack on Bethlncotirt village was turned off like gas from a . tap by the French curtain fire, and the French counter-attack drove the Germans back an appreciable distance. ' I SICK WITH SLAUGHTER. J . /The desperate battle for Vaux endej , In the enemy'* dixcoinfiturp. Th(i French line passes at (be foot of the hill above which lies the fort of Van*. The German attack was made against these trenches, and it was here that they lost most men. In the Woevre valley the French and German artillery ■: swept the ruin? into further ruin, making all infantry attack impossible. ' '1 French gunnels who have returned tell me that they themselves are absolutely J sick with slaughter. i.lliwr* and men } both declare, that there arc momenta *''« when the knowledge of the terrific ■>'' butchery which it is their duty to per. ", form absolutely nauseates them. . J "I dream at night," mi id one artillery j officer, "of tho-c «li,i»lly crumpled heaps of shattered grey-green bodiet,. Ge'r- v many's wives and mothers inn.t 'ciirae ; the Kaiser in their prayers," ! Each night the told and discomfort ■'" endured without grumbling ty the ) transport men are indescribable.' The , traimpi it v. oik, of eour-e. is nearly entirely done at night, and (he state of a the roads wll'i muiw, mud, blood and \\ the shattered landscape falling on them j all night through is more easily imag. "'j ined than described. I ight- on motor I cars and carts :>:e, of'"course, taboo. J The chauffeurs hit ao terribly hard '■» worked that, in spite of th" hitter .-old, .A terrible roads, ami constant dinger from .'J falling shells, they full asleep a.i they ,*l drive. jj Every few momuiii one or ,another ,J f.'.r breaks down or sli.l-, lopsid-dl.» dj into a snowdrift. Then all h.inls pot to m work with picks and »peili-a ami d\ i: 'H out again. Now and again a ■ e»r J8 catches (ire, and the hl.i/.e i< 'iiiiin.vV. '£*j ately followed by a showir of shell*. j%k Yet these men get the stores and mini!- £*■ tions through, and do their work sing- ; "> ing. Frenchmen nc\ er fl.ht better or f work harder than when tiioy..{t«l sue- ■ cess is theirs, and every tWnehitmu from the youngest privr.te to the «»*" eral in command of the Verdun aW - knewi that Titter? ii twin* t» Hudfc s"N '