LA BASSE VILLE FIGHT

Taranaki Daily News, 2 October 1917, Page 5

LA BASSE VILLE FIGHT

WORK OP NEW ZEALANDEB3.

FIFTY MINUTES'' GHIM EFFORT/

The work of the New Zealanderg ia tho great British advance at Ypres, which began on July 31, was to form the southern flank of the advancing line. Correspondents, at British hsadqtiatt#rg state that they only had a very slight advance to make to keep step itftjr the rest of the line, and they did it ptnietually. At some points there was inarrp fighting, as at La Bassee Ville, which the New Zealanders found honeycombed with cellars and dugouts full of Germane. with the usual machine-gun defences. After the place was captured, the enemy counter-attacked three times in the course of tho day. Once he gained a foothold, only to be immediately thrown out, and tho other attacks were broken by our guns and the New Zealand rifles. The enemy casualties hare were very heavy, and the dugouts simply full of German dead.

• In the' 'Bassee Ville area the Heidi are divided by hedges, and through those hedges the Germans had strung barbed wire, besides digging machine-gun pits or using 'shell-holes covered with wirev , netting. In spite of wire and' machine- i ; guns the New Zealandera cleaned out the whole region,, and one ibattajion' which got home with its .bayonets 'after- iV| wards buried over 100 German dead among the hedges and shell-holos. ,; Below here the Australians had a point :' of local importance to tako in a ruined •;' I windmill on a slight but commandmjf '; knoll. It was taken by them, retaktn in v a counter-attack, taken again, and re- ' mains in their hands. The whole of thii .'' southern part of the attack, while the ■} advance was not of any great depth, was extremely 'cleanly and thoroughly executed, and with casualties which wen gratifyiugly slight. Another despatch stated that the New ! Zealandera found stout foes at La Bassee .; Ville, The ruins had been taken before the battle, but a strong counterattack ' bad brought them agajn within the enemy ; lines. The New Zealanders drove into * < the village on tho first wave of, the i battle and found it full of good German .1 troops. The (iormans had many machineguns in strong positions, and even when the attackers swarmed in among them - the gunners and bombers tried to hold i their ground. There were fifty minutes of grim effort by the New Zealan'ders before La Barjsen Ville was wholly theirs : and before theremnants of the garrison whic-h had escaped'.were retreating in, Uw direction of Warncton.' As" at Holit'be'ke, • cellars full of Gcrmana who would not »-ome out were blown in, and the New (Cenlandera sent word luck niter the \-apIme that thin could not 'w tlu«-t» undei- . ground ienites at tno inoyent because they weie filled with bodies. Nothing u left of La L!ui,=oo Ville. Tho German defences beyond if, too, Were demulUhcJ by our artillery.