WESTERN ATTACK.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 September 1917, Page 5

WESTERN ATTACK.

ANZACS PRAISED. IN SPLENDID BATTLE CONDITION. London, Sept. 23. Mr. Gilmour, special correspondent at the front of the Australian and New Zealand Press Association, pays a tribute to the Australians. The fighting Australian army was never in such splendid battle condition, showing impetuous dash, combined with perfect training. Features of their victorious advance were the extraordinary intelligent restraint by the officers and cohesion and strict discipline of the men. The correspondent adds: "It cannot yet he said that our artillery is overwhelmingly predominant; miHi is left to the infantry to accomplish. Mr. Gilmour writes that the Australian front lines 'followed the barrage more closely in some places than discretion would have prompted, with the result that many Germans were caught in their dug-outs! The tenacity with "which the Anzacs clung to the tail of tne barrage also resulted in almost totally stifling German machine-gun work. A young lieutenant on the fringe of the terrific barrage, with shells bursting around him, doffed forward to a fortified post where the Germans were waiting to receive the Australians with a machine-gun. The lieutenant stretched his arm into the look-out hole, fired a few shots with his revolver and thj Germans insidu were killed or scuttled. The performance was repeated with equal success at the next concreted blockhouse. Mr. Gilmour mentioned the excellent work of the artillery in smashing the troops assembling for counter-attacks. The precision of the British attack surpassed anything previously done.

DISASTROUS COUNTERATTACKS. COMPANIES LOST IN CHAOS, ENEMY COLUMN DECIMATED BY BOMBS. MOVEMENTS CRUSHED BY FURY OF SHELLS

Received Sept. 25, 12.30 a.m. London, Sept. 24. Mr. Gibbs reports: After ou: men had carried their objectives everybody was convinced that the enemy's losses were heavy, especially in the counter-attacks, which were continued on Saturday and Sunday with even more disastrous' results. A German regiment carried its buses at midday on Saturday to a po : .nt behind the lines for the purpose of a new assault on our positions at Polygon Wood When the regiment took to the road our artillery caught and disperssd them. Some companies worked their way forward and became lost in the chaos of shell craters, and instead of battalions and companies they were transformed into a collection of terror-6tri-ken individual soldiers, without guidance or commanders.

Another column that was marching on the Menin road belonged to the Sixteenth Bavarian Division, and had hastily been sent forward without maps or knowledge of the ground, and without definite instructions. A British aeroplane dropped bombs at the head of this column, and the explosion attracted the attention of more of our night raiders, who, flying low, dropped bombs all down the eoiumn. This counter-attack never reached our lines.

No counter-attack reached our positions near the 'Polygon ridge, which is the ground the enemy most wants. The nearest was on Saturday afternoon when some Australians saw a glint of bayon. cts in a little wood on the opposite spur. For a minute or two they saw the movement of men, and then a fury of shells fell into the wood and filled it -villi flame and smoke.

VIOLENT ARTILLERY STRUGGLE. Received Sept. 2ft 7.45 p.m. Paris, Sept. 23. A French communique states: The artillery struggle is somewhat violent in the region of Hurtebise and on the left bank of the Meuse north of Hill 304. FRENCxi BREAK ENEMY ATTACK. London, Sept. 23. A French communique says: After a violent bombardment the Germans reattacked in the region of Maison de Champagne, but were broken before they reached our lines. Eleven German aeroplans were destroyed. GERMANY'S HEAVY LOSSES. Pans, Sept. 23, M. Marcel Hutin says that Thursday's battle cost the Crown Prince Rupprecht 22,000 dead and wounded and the previous bombardment cost 10,000 men. ENEMY COLUMNS DECIMATED. Paris, Sept. 23. Le (Petit Parisien says that German columns in the Langemarc-k region were brought up 'five times to assault the lost ground and each time hellish fire smashed the attack and decimated the battalions. One prisoner declared that of his company of 200 only four were not killed on the spot. AIRCRAFT RAIDS. London, Sept. 23. The Admiralty reports that naval aircraft bombed Thourout, Cortmarch, and the Ostend docks and caused fires.