WESTERN ATTACK.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 September 1916, Page 5

WESTERN ATTACK.

GERMAN COUNTER-ATTACK. | AN" ALL-DA if BATTLE. FRENCH HOLD THEIR GROUND. GREAT LOSSES JXFLTCTRD OX THE SNEMY. Wived .Sept. 21. 10 p.m. Router Set vice. Paris, Sept. 21. A communique states: North of the Snmme the Germans made a great effort to recover the lost positions. The battle lasted from nine o'clock in the moraine; till nightfall. Successive waves of enemy masses were crushed by our ma-chine-gun and artillery lire, and sometimes liv the bayonet. The French retained the whole ground. The Germans attacked on a front of five kilometres, from Fries', farm to south of Abbe Wood farm. The attacking masses were on each occasion preceded by a furious cannonade. The. French magnificently resisted all the assaults. We repulsed the enemy hy cross-,lre from machine-guns and artillery and everywhere maintained our positions. The fighting was fiercest in the vicinity of Frio;'. farm and the region of Bouciiavesnes. Four waves of assault on tiie front, of Priez farm were successively broken by our gun-fire. The enemy masses were seen to disintegrate in disorder behind the ridge, leaving the ground covered with corpses. The Germans in the Bonchavesnes sector, after several sanguinary defeats, succeeded at one o'clock in the afternoon in gaining a lodgment in the northeastern part of the village, but were driven out with the bayonet bv an irresistible counter-attack. The enemy's losses everywhere were of the greatest. General Sir Douglas llaig reports: There lias been heavy rain. There was considerable hostile artillery activity southward of Ancre. . WELL DONE, CANADA! NEW ZEALANDERS IX THE HCXT, London, Sept. 20. Mr. Philip Gibbs says: The Canadians won great glory on Friday and Saturday. They came from the Vprcs salient to the .-online determined to get their own back. Their attack was finely organised, and, when the facts are known, will be regarded as a great military achievement. The French Canadian unit was particularly brilliant. It captured a Herman stronghold and took hundreds of prisoners. The New Zcalanders. who are elean-cut, handsome fellows, followed the great example the Australians set in the fight around Pozieres. The Xew Zeal.inders' gallant charge at dawn on l-'riday will long be remembered. They crossed Xo Man's Land, went over the Herman trenches, and were out into the blue in pursuit of the retreating enemy. It is such foul weather that we seem back to the winter mud. The rain and mi>t make it impossible for the aeroplanes to !>ee, the gunners to shoot, or the infantry to signal their whereabouts, lint it is a great sight to watch the troops marching i:i glistening waterproof-, with steel helmets, into the (iring line, utterly refusing to surrender their good spirits. I have been spending lour days among the men who have broken the Flers line, and the most striking discovery is that the great deed was done bv the newest troops. Some Derby reomits were engaged, and the older hands wondered how they would stick it, but the newcomers leapt the (lonium trenches with the spirit of the oldest lighters. The Londoners did gloriously, having one of the hardest points to attack. The young Civil servants and city clerks fought sternly and endured all with stoicism.

THE GUARDS AT FLERS. SOME FIGHTIXG. ! Received Sept. 21, 0.10 p.m. London, Sept. 2ft. Mr. Gibbs' narrative continues: The Guards at Flers brought to the light, as they always do, superb discipline. They were not the Guards who fought at Ypres and Loos, but the sacred tradition remains, and their physical standard is not lowered a hair's breadth.. The Guards had to pass machine-gun-; which swept their ranks with cnlihidc lire. They "lined ground by a series of charges which went straight through three lines of German trenches. Heavy lighting followed, hut the Guards held their ground against the strongest counter-attacks. EXPLOITS OF THE "TASKS." A full narrative of the achievements of the tanks shows that they rank amongst the most dramatic and gallant records of the war. One ambled within 400 yards of Cn'-.blcs, far in advance of the infantry, and sat for five hours lighting the enemy alone, shooting down the German bombing parties until the machine wa-i severely damaged. Another "tank" reached Morval. but, finding it had left the infantry behind, went back to inquire, and found that German bombers had held up the m- ■ fantry in their trenches. The Tank backed over the trench and crushed the bombers into the earth, before falling into a deep shell crater and toppling over. Here, for an hour and a half, tlie Tank formed a barricade between the British and German bomber-. The crew then got out and tried to hoist the Tank from the shell hole, under heavy fire, but finally the skipper and survivors abandoned the derelict, and the monster is still used as a barricade. THE F'RIGIITEXED ENEMY SURRENDERS. A third Tank so frightened the enemy that a hundred came out with white flags and followed the monster hack to our lines. Three Tanks marched into Flers, lolloped around the town in a free and easy manner, compelling the garrison, iu hiding in their dugouts, to surrender, which they did ,in small scared groups.