VERDUN BATTLES.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 June 1916, Page 5

VERDUN BATTLES.

BRUTAL AND INFERNAL THE ENEMY'S PLANS. Received June 26, 5.5 p.m. iPiiris, June 25. Semi-official.—The battle at Verdun has been resumed with sudden brutality and infernal violence. There was heavy gunfire, and the extreme fierceness of the infantry assaults indicates that the Germans are delaying us at Verdun, wishing to foil our plans, which are approaching realisation, and which threaten them, or else to distract attention while the enemy transfer troops to Russia.

THE GERMAN CREEP. WHO HOLDS THE SCALES? STRAIN OF THE CONTEST. (Received June 20, 10.15 p.m. Lodno J nne2,usl London, June 26. Tlie Daily Chronicle says that unless the slow and steady German advance at Verdun is interrupted it must end in the fall of the town. "The French commanders value the ground solely as a means for hleeding the enemy, while the Germans rely on their superiority in heavy guns to equalise the loss in infantry attacks. "We cannot accurately determine w>hieh way the balance is inclined in the last chapters of this bloody rivalry. We should all like to see some diversion which would ease the growing strain.of this gruesome contest upon France. "Newspapers of prominence in Berlin reprint General Sir Douglas Haig's communiques reporting the heavy night-long-bombardment on the British front."

. OFFICIAL REPORTS. Wellington, June 2<i. The High Commissioner reports under date London, June 25 (3.35 p.m.):— On the left of the Meuse a German attack on the French trenches and the slopes south of Mort Homme was stopped. On the right bank the fighting continued and our counter-attacks captured portions of West Work at the village of Fleury. The Frencli progressed by grenades. The bombardment remained violent jn other sectors on the right bank, but there was no infantry action. Paris, June 25. A communique saysi—Our fire stopped attacks on the trenches on the slopes southward of Mort ifomirie. A counterattack restored to \is some portions of the trenches westward of, Thiaumont. We progressed at Fleury by means of grenades. German aeroplanes bombed Lunevillc, Baccarat and St. Die, when some children were wounded. The bombardments have been noted with a view to jeprisals.

GERMAN REPORT. Received June 2G, 5.5 p.m. Amsterdam, June 25. A German communique says:—Many violent battles developed under a continuous artillery fire around positions we captured eastward of the Mouse. All fresh attempts to recapture the lost ground broke down, they suffering heavy losses.

BATTLE AT THIAUMONT. A STRENUOUS STRUGGLE. GERMANS ADVANCE. Received June 2fi, 5.40 p.m. Paris, June 20. The capture of Thiaumont was Ger"inany's supreme effort. It is evident that the Crown Prince was desperate. The enemy, reinforced by heavy artillery from Metz, massed on the right bank of the Meuse with 8-inch and 15-inch sheila and tear bombs, which rained for fifty hours along a front of V/ 4 miles, north of Fleury village. •After the bombardment the enemy attacked, at least six divisions working out in a fantastic figure of twenty-seven attackers to each yard of the front. enemy's objective was Fleury village and the adjoining Chapire Wood, which they were enabled to attack, on the front, and in the rear Souville fort, which is the last defence but one on the right bank of the Meuse, which is only twelve hundred yards from the front of the new Gerjnan position. Throughout Friday morning the French infantry and artillery held back the Germans, inflicting very lieavy losses on the storming parties. Prisoners estimate that the loss of tbe attackers in the forenoon was at least SO per cent. After twelve charges the Germans were reinforced, and made a breach in the French line, east of the Thiaumont works, wherein they immediately flung all their available reserves.

Tlie French' then evacuated' Thiaumont, and the advance enabled the Germans to drive a wedge between the two main French positions. So elated were they at their success at Thiaumont, that the Germans surged on to Fleury, but met with such determined resistance that progress was impossible. The French, at a critical moment, made a, bayonet attack and drove the enemy' to the northern confines at Fleury. The net advance during the day was seven hundred yards.

ROLL OF HONOR. LATEST CASUALTY LIST. Wellington, June 26. Died of wounds.—Privates H. H. Lane and A. Blackburn. Wounded, admitted to hospital.— Lance-Corporal K. Storie, Private 0. Carson, Rifleman J. H. Ed'e, Sapper P. S. J. Brosnahan, Private D. Taylor.