ANOTHER WEDGE DRIVEN.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 September 1916, Page 5

ANOTHER WEDGE DRIVEN.

BAVARIANS CUT TO PIECES. New York Sept. in. Tlift New Yorl; Times correspondent in France states that, as the result of Sunday's battle, the French liave driven another wedge in the circuit of fortresses defending Peronnc. The seen!' of the battle' >vas between Barleux and Vermundovillers. At the latter villain the light was so fierce that the Germans died to a man rather than surrender. The French found evidences of the terrible ell'ect of the artillery lire in the wood south-east of Berny. They literally had to force their way through 'leaps of corpses. The Bavarians returned to the charge again and again, but each new company was cut to pieces by the curtain of lire which passed over the heads of the French so close yet harmlessly, that the accuracy of the artillery must be perfect. It is described as the finest gunnery ever witnessed. After the capture of licrny the French put strong pressure on the Gcrnlui line between Berny and Deniecourt, thus preventing the advance of strong reinforcements, on which the Hermans counted. After his capture the German commander broke his sword in the bitterness of defeat. . HITTING THE HUN. WliEfiE lIE WILL FEEL IT MOST. deceived Sept. 20, 10 p.m. Paris, Sept. 20. A national company has been projected to manufacture dye and chemical products. The Government guarantees the company the use of the new war factories after the war, reserving the power to order the manufacture of explosives and chemicals. A commercial understanding has also been completed 'between similar British BRITISH "TERROR." WHY THE 'ARMORED AUTOS WERE INVENTED. Received Sept. -20, 11 p.m. Copenhagen, Sept. 20. The Berliner Tageblatt states that England's boasted armored antos were invented because of the enemy's terror of the German machine-guns. AN ORGY OF SLAUGHTER,

liOW LONG CAN IT LAST? . HUNS GROANING Times Service. Received Sept. 20, 10 p.m. London, Sept. 20. The war correspondent of the Frankfurter Zeitung says that the Somme offensive is most terrible, involving continuous fighting. The enemy only pauses to hastily prepare his new attacks. His crushing artillery and infantry superiority are indulging in perfectly horrible orgies of modern scientific destruction. The German soldiers are fighting in hell, making the most gigantic sacrifices for the Fatherland. How long, lie asks, can this slaughter last. The correspondent points out that the enemy is immensely strong, while Germany is compelled to hold the whole West front, the greater portion of the Fast front, as well as supporting her allies in the Carpathians, in Transylvania, on the Dobrudja, and in Turkey. A GERMAN ADMISSION. London, Sept. 10. A German communique states: East of Ginchy and before Combles we yielded some 'trenches to the French, who also temporarily penetrated trenches on the /west slope of Mort Homme. OFFICIAL REPORT London, Sept. 19. General Sir Douglas Haig reports:— The general situation is unchanged. Three'raids on Richeborg captured prisoners. Our casualties were very slight. Five more aeroplanes have failed to return. , GERMAN ATTACKS REPULSED. London, Sept. IS. A French communique states: Bad weather hinders operations. After a bombardment of our positions westward and eastward of the Soiuin-Somme-'Py road, tile Germans made many attacks, notably five against the Russian sector, but were repulsed everywhere with serious losses. We repulsed a coup-do-niain at Avocourt and two counter-attacks at Mort Homme. ALLIES' SIX WEEKS' RECORD. London, Sept. 10. An Exchange telegram says that the official communiques show that, between July 1 and September 18, the French captured 145 aims, the British 10ft, the Russians 8-U, and the Italians 30; the French 72!) machine-guns, the British 223, the Russians 15.50. and the Italians !)•>.' The French prisoners numbered 33,0911, the British 21,450, the Russian 402,171, and the Italian 33,048.

THE VERDUN ATTACK. THE CROWN PRINCE DECORATED. Received Sept. 20, 5.40 p.ro' Amsterdam, Sept. 10. The Kaiser has conferred the "Oak Leaves pour le merite" on the Crown Prince. The latter, in announcing the honor to the troops at Verdun, said that seldom in history had such great things been accomplished by a single army, which hud acquired an utter contempt for death, while it had distinguished itself by its boldness and daring in attack, and its persistence in retaining gains.

the Verdun front, with a modal of honor for courageous work as an ambulance driver in the American Legion, on arriving at his home at Winchester, in Massachusetts, told a peculiarly strange «tory of the. battlefield as it was related to him liy a French ooptain of Zouaves, who lay mortally wounded in a base hospital. Following one of the terrific charges by the Teutons up a shell-swept slope held' by the French, the field was strewn with dead and dying. When night came on and the German charge had been stayed, No Man's Land, between the French lines on the top of the hill and the Teutons' position on the plain below, was piled high, with dead and wounded, and the huge holes torn by the Herman shells wer. filled nearly full with bodies. Captain X had been in command of one of the firstline trenches, and his company had fallen hack just before the charge, leaving many wounded behind. Among the latter was a lieutenant, a brother-in-law of the captain's, with whom he had taken the oath of allegiance when their company was called to the colors. Calling to a gigantic Zouave, the captain told him he intended creeping down the bloody slope under cover of darkness, in the hope that lie might rescue his umiradc, and asked the man to accompany him. They found the lieutenant half-way up tiie side of a great hole torn by a 111-inch shell. In the darkness the captain's llaslilight lit up the crater with ghastly clVect, and he hastened to [iass his comrade un to the Zouave, dimming his ears to the groans of the wounded all around him. As he himself started to ascend the slope a hand clutched his ankle and a voice in German begged: "Kill us! Kill us!" Turning his llaslilight towards the crater's bottom, Captain X saw there more than a dozen frightfully wounded Hermans. gasping for water, and several already dead from their sufferings. Trying to draw away, he answered the (ionium captain who had called to him, saying that he did not wish to kill him and his comrades—that he could not do it in cold blood. Then the Teuton captain, his right arm hanging in shreds, clung to him in desperation. He must kill them, in God's mercy ho must. Captain \ mopped the clammy sweat from his brow, and thought of the awful torture these men, enemies though they were, must endure, and then, deciding instantly, ordered 'his man to carry the lieutenant on his 'back to the French lines and return with a? many hnhd grenades as he could carry. Then the Zouave returned, and. with a muttered prayer, they threw the grenades down into the heap of Hermans until the last cries were stilled.