ENEMY ATTACKS REPULSED.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 July 1916, Page 5

ENEMY ATTACKS REPULSED.

LARGE CAPTURES BY THE FRENCH. SOME PROGRESS MADE, Received July 18, 5.5 p.m. Panis, July IS. A communique states: Strong enemy ivconnaisances were dispersed in the neighbourhood of Moulin and Bois Tons Vents. A coup de main directed' against a trench in the Russian sector in the Champagne was repulsed with heavy losses. West of Floury some elements of our troops progressed. Two enemy attacks south-east of Momeny, in Lorraine, were repulsed, some prisoners being taken. Semi-official. —From July 1 to 1", the Freneh captured 2:15 ollicers. 11,741 men and many guns. War material is still buried in the wrecked trenches. POSITION IN BELGIUM. GERMAN PRESS VIEWS. Amsterdam, July 17. The Tclcgraaf says that the Germans are removing hooks and documents from Ostein! and other places, which are no longer considered safe. Flanders is full of soldiers, including those of eighteen years who entered the service two months ago. THE STORMING OF FRICOURT. CAPTAIN BEAN PRESENT. HOW INFANTRY ADVANCED. "NEVER WISH TO SEE FINER RIGHT.(From Captain C. E. W. Bean, Official Commonwealth Correspondent). British Headquarters, July 3. The great battle to-day raged over tf«u.e villages which the Germans still retained, and which seemed like promontories jutting out into the waves of our advance. Some of us had the luck to be on a hill almost between two of these attacks, one of which was the assaulting of the village of I'ricourt and the Fricourt wood on our right. The other was that hurled upon La Boiselle on our left. Our troops have held the whole hillside In front of us up to skyline since half-past 1 o'clock this morning, but these two German villages projected like horns on either side of us. Attempts against them had been met by some nucleus of Germans still remaining in the ruins. The British attacked them again today. By the time we arrived our troops could be seen climbing about the ruins of Fricourt, which evidently had been taken during the morning. S'>mo of the British seemed to he makii their way through the Fricourt wood behind the village, while others .vere apparently attacking around either side of the ' wood, so as to nip it, as it were, bc- '] tween the jaws of attack. By evening • the plan seemed to have succeeded, except that every attempt on the farthermost corner of the wood roused an incessant rattle from one remaining ma-chine-gun and a small remnant' of rifle fire. In the meantime, about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, a tremendous British bombardment poured into the ruins of La Boiselle, where an obstinate defer.ee still existed. Bouquet after boquet of brick-red dust was belched into the air from the heart of the wreckage. Presently there showered on it, like n 'ia'' storm, salvo after salvo of shrapnel. The red earth was whipped up as with flail. We knew that this must be ir order to keep the German heads dov.r while our infantry attacked. A bend of the hill prevented us seeing from where the British infantry was issuing, tut we soon knew. As we watched the hillside, there suddenly arose from the valley beyond it clouds of jet black earth. The. air resounded with crashes Black mist streamed up the valley like smoke from a hundred factory chimneys. 1 never saw such a fire concentrated in eo narrow a funnel. It was a German artillery battery thrown in front of th« British attack. Surely no living being can come through that inferno, we thought. Minutes passed. Our fire had lifted to the slopes behind the village, and one thought of the Germans in the village picking themselves together after the bombardment while our attack must have been turned back. Suddenly from behind that black haze comes the knock of rifle shots, and immediately afterwards the chatter of machine-guns. (Tver the crest of the valley against Jie white tumbled sandhill, "which once was the German front trench, >.ve can see the figures of men running forward. Burst after burst ot shrapnel tears up the white (lust in front and beside tlicm at intervals. They stand out black against a huge burnt of high evplosive in he chalky dust powdered by our bombardment. But, the figures run on through it, and throw themselves down for a moment behind the cover of a white mound. Then they would start up again. A few dark forms there are which do not more forward with the rest. They lie there naturally as if resting, and it is only after three or four groups have passed them that we realise that for them the bravo day's work is ended. But the others come on, one small wave after another, gradually building up a strong lino for a further attack on the shredded remains of the village. About 5 o'clock the British bombardment descends again as a prelude to the second stage of the attack. A quarter of an hour later, as we reluctantly turned to leave that spectacle, the last glimpse I. caught was of the infantrymen going over the t*»p of that white sandhill into the caukirfln which separated them from the village. It was the sound of the inevitable machine guns, which had made me look round to see, and wo left that fight still unfinished. I do not knew what was tlie result of that battle. But I had seen British -infantry come through the valley ol the shadow of death, and I never wish to see a finer sight. I am returning to the Anzaes tomorrow. The present position in the great tight is that the southern portion of the line a'nd the French line have considerably advanced. In the northern portion, tho advance lias been less pronounced.