WESTERN ATTACK.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 March 1917, Page 5

WESTERN ATTACK.

ENEMY SHELL YPRES. BATTERIES SILENCED. SUCCESSFUL AERIAL WORK. Received March S, 8.20 p.m. London, March 8. Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig reports: The situation ia unchanged. We silenced the batteries that were shelling Ypres and bombarded the trenches westward of Messines and Audi. We carried out a sticeesful aerial reconnaissance and artillery work. LENGTH OF BRITISH LINE. OVER 150 JULES. Heuter Service. ' ' Received March 8, 8.20 p.m. London, March 8. Estimates as to the length of the British line on the West front vary, owin;; to it not being publicly known how far it extends beyond Roye. • A French writer (M. Taderg) declares that its total length is over 150 miles. BRITISH REMORSELESS PRESSURE. AND INCESSANT ATTACKS.

RESPONSIBLE FOR HUNS RETREAT A. and N.Z. Cable Assn. and Keuter. London, March 7. A correspondent 'at headquarters states that driving snow hampered operations on the Autre yesterday, the thaw at noon hadly aliecting the roads, fhe enemy continued 1) is slow retirement, but tho strategical movement is not clear. He is now right back on his line oi' defence in front of Bapaume. The next problem for the British is to discover whether he intends to strongly defend this line or retire till he is quite clear of the salient, shortening his front by thirty miles. 'Paris, March 7. An expert commentator anticipates a fresh enemy attack north of Douamont, "but is confident that his efforts will not counterbalance the British advance on the Ancre, their remorseless pressure and incessant attacks being responsible for the enemy's increasing retirement.

GERMAN LOSS OF LIFE. o l REASON FOR RETREAT. , ] London, March 7. j An eye-witness, describing the eva- < cuated ground in the Bapaume region, j declares that it is impossible to doubt j that the reason of the retreat was ( simply that the loss of life was too terrible. Our gunfire was unendurable. , The horrors of the field were indescrib- ] able. The correspondent could vouch , for the fact that our losses during the | winter were nothing remotely re- , sembling those of the Germans. A French communique says:—We made a coup-de-main at Quennevicres, between the Oise and the Aisne, and ] brought hack prisoners. The enemy at- | tempted coups-de-main north-east of j Flirey, in the Bois Bouchot north of St. , Mihiel, and in the direction of Ainmert- ,

zwiller. Our barrage stopped liim and in- • flieted losses. A wireless German official message , says:—We repulsed French attacks on , our new positions in Caurieres Wood. ; We brought down fifteen aeroplanes. ; The Germans have ordered all factories in Belgium to close owing to the lack of coal and difficulties of transport. The majority of the Belgians will now . be unemployed, and the outlook will be desperate. , A fire at Hasse't destroyed 20,000 '■ kilogrammes of coffee belonging to the ' Belgian Belief Committee. i GERMAN CRUELTY. AN AWFUL STORY. > Paris, lilarch 7. A Frenchman, Dr. Cresson, who was a prisoner in Germany for 21 months and employed in organising a hospital for sielc prisoners, tells an awful story of German cruelty to invalided captives who were sent from the front packed in cattle trucks, naked except for a blanket. As the camp luid no shelters they dug holes in the ground with plates 3 to keep out the cold. -Subsequently huts r w«re constructed, but) the food was so bad and scarce that the men became in a shocking state owing to hunger and disease. Some German doctors frequently used Russian prisoners for the purpose of experimental amputation. Dr Cresson protested, whereupon he was confined in a room so small that he had to remain seated, while the barred window was only open once in three days. Another refinement of cruelty was forcing healthy men to sleep in rooms full of typhus cases. a o