WESTERN ATTACK.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 July 1917, Page 5

WESTERN ATTACK.

BRITISH POSTS DRIVEN IN. ENEMY TRENOEES RAIDED. Aus. and N.Z. Cable Assoc, and Router. Received July 28, 8.30 p.m. „. - London, Julv 3(1. bir Douglas Haig reports: Following a heavy bombardment eastward of Moncliy lo Preux, the ™emv, usin» fiammenwerfer, drove in a few advanced posts on a front of '250 yards. We stopped raiders northward of Bullecourt We raided enemy trenches at a number of points .northward of Yipres. The weather is restricting aerial operations.

BRUGES AND ZEEBRUGGE BOMBARDED. SUBMARINE SHED BLOWN UP. Australian Gable Association. Amsterdam, July 26. Received July 20, g.45 p.m. The English have bombed Bruges and Zeebrnggo for the past two nights, explosions and fires resulting. Zeebrugge has been much damaged, the submarine shed, probably with submarines, being blown up. A naval squadron bombarded the Belgian coast on the 22nd-23rd, along the Zeobrugge-Ostend line.

THE CHEMIN DES DAMES ASSAULT. GERMAN ARTILLERY ENORMOUSLY REINFORCED. PRUSSIAN REGIMENTS HALF WIPED DOT. Received July 20. 8.10 p.m. Paris, July 25. A narrative of the Gernian assault on the Chemin des Dames states that the artillery was enormously reinforced, 53 guns being counted to the kilometre, while 260 wore counted before the attack sector. For the attack on the wood and Hill 304 the Germans had 500 guna in ISOO' metres. The attack was launched at daybreak by ceaseless artillery fire, under which the infantry carried all tho positions which were not protected by the accessory defences, but when obstacles were encountered the attack became a' butchery. The 214 th and 21oth Prussian regiments lost 50 per cent, of their effectives.

ARTILLERY BATTLE. - ASSUMING GIGANTIC PROPORTIONS. London, July 25. Sir Douglas Haig reports: We made successful raids eastward and northeastward of Ypres. The enemy's artillery is active eastward of Monchy and in the neighborhood of Lombartzyde.

Paris, July 555. The artillery battle on the Britishfront, if German accounts are to 'be believed, for Sir Douglas Haig does not mention it, is assuming gigantic proportions, and an unexampled degree of severity. London, July 25. A wireless German official report says: Powerful artillery work has continued in Flanders. . We drove back repeated English thrusts. Strong French attacks, supported by a fregh division, failed at Craonne. Paris, July 25. The (Matin's correspondent at the British front eulogises the extraordinary energy with which, the British in the Ijomibartzyde region have finally got the upper hand over an enemy nearly tenfold their strength. Three times the Germans blew wp the Nieuporfc bridges, and three times, under withering fire, the British engineers restored and finally held them. Ono general dashed forward with three battalions, and the order was given to smash the enemy's assaults or die on the spot. Meanwhile a colonel in Nieuport gathered a number of pioneers, cooks, and stretcher-bearers, electrified them by his speech, and this improvised body rushed to weak points, strengthened the regular battalions, and showed 'British mettle and initiative at the mo».t critical moments. (This, apparently refers to the time when the Germans wiped out our men across the Ylpres near Nieuport and captured trenches at Lombartzyde, which were re-taken.) ARTILLERYING ON FRENCH FRONT A. and N.Z. Cable Assoc, and Seuter. Received July 20, 8.45 p.m. London ( July 20. A French communique states: There is the liveliest reciprocal artillerying, especially on the California and Casemates plateaus and Moronvillcrs, on the left of the Meuse.

GERMANS FAIL. TO RECAPTURE FRENCH POSITIONS Received July 2G, 5.5 p.m. London, July 25. A French communique Btates: The attempted German attack, after a brief but violent bombardment, on the position captured yesterday on the California plateau, was completely repulsed, We retained and consolidated the gains.

THE BATTLE OF MESSINES. GENERAL GODLEV'S ACCOUNT. By Telegraph—Special to Daily News. (Parliamentary Reporter.) Wellington, Last Night. _ "You will have heard long before this of the brilliant capture of Messines by the New Zealand division," says General Godley in a letter to the Defence Minister, dated June 1.1. "It was quite one of the best things done in this war, and I was very glad to have been so able to arrange the distribution of units of my corps that the taking of Messines fell to my old division. The casualties, I am glad to say, are not nearly so heavy as those on the Somme, and I ■uw able to pull the division out again

fairly soon. Our greatest tog wa£ Brigadier-General Brown, 'who Old «flleady proved himself a most pvftfjfrnfc brigadier, and is a very great KM tfi. New Zealand and to tho New Zealand* Expeditionary Force. He would; bays gone far. He and Russell and IRalaJi Beethajn were standing together ftftMi close to Messines when shrapnel burst over them, killing Brown instaneWaly ■by cutting his jugular vein, and wounding Beetham, while Russell fortunately was untouched, but the latter was. hit. by a sniper this morning while visiting liis trout, Tttts (bullet went through his steel helmet, but this fortunately deflected it, and he has only a comparatively slight scalp wound, which will soon be all right. This battle of Messines lias beSn quite the greatest success of the war so far. Everything went exactly as planned, and all the barrages and various stages were exactly up to. time-table, with the resurfc that the l JBosche was never really able to make a stand when tackled 'by our magnificent infantry. The explosions of mines and the violence of the artillery homv bardment were really beyond description, and how any living soul could exist through it is almost incomprehensible. But there is no doubt that the Germans are extraordinarily brave ■fighters, and we have been very heavily counter-attacked during the last two days, and as I write we are trying to dislodge two "pockets" of them, who are holding out in parts of the captured trenches. The battle is by no means ' over yet, and I am very busy >with plana for further exploitation of our success, so must stop now. I cannoi, tell you how proud I aim to have command of the New Zealand Division, and to still have it with me. You may tell the people of New Zealand, with authority, tWtthere is no Division of the British armies in (France which has a higher reputation."