WESTERN ATTACK.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 March 1917, Page 5

WESTERN ATTACK.

GERMAN ATTACKS FAIL ACTIVE ARTILLERY WORK. TERRIBLE BRITISH GUNFIRE. "DEVILISH TORMENT?." {SHAMBLES OF GERMAN TROOPS. 1 i London, March 15. 'A French communique says: We executed a coup-de-main in the region of Moulin-sous-Touvent, east of the Oise, and took prisoners. Several German attempts on our email posts in the neighborhood of Vingre, west of Xavarian and the Argonne, failed. There was fairly active artillery work in the region of Maisons-de-Champagne, but no infantry Attacks. Mr. Philip Gibbs says that on Wednesday evening the enemy was still holding out at Achiet-le-Pet'it and Bucquoy, though he will be forced to leave in a hurry. "A visit to the battlefields shows the devilish torments the enemy has suffered. The ground is a wild ehao?, so turned up by Bhell fire that oneV gorge rises at such obscene mangling of mother earth, with bodies half buried by high explosives. •The ravine beyond Miraumont is a shambles of German troops. They had machine-giln emplacements and deep dugouts under cover of earth banks, but cur guns found them out and the entire garrison was,killed. I counted the dead hereabouts, and out of 850 bodies, 700 were Germans. "Our gunfire leaves nothing alive, and makes rubbish heaps of machine-guns and casements and breaks hundreds of rifles into matchwood. "The battlefields disclose the secret of ■ihe German retreat, which was to save themselves from another such shambles. They are falling back to new lines," 1 —-___ THE GERMAN RETIREMENT. ' WHOLE LINE ABANDONED j WORKS DESTROYED. Received March 16, 6.45 p.qi. Paris, March 15. Le Petit Parisicn states there are indications that the Germans are about to abandon the entire line from Kannescamps to Bapaume. Many fires have been seen, and explosions continue to bo heard. The Germans are certainly de■rtroying their works in the region from Bapaume to Peronne, also at Noyon and • Lassigny. Le Petit Parisien also says that the British, after pasang Grevillera, will almost have reachem the Arras-Bapaume railway, which is defended by double entrenchments and masses of entanglements.