TITANIC STRUGGLE UNABATED

Taranaki Daily News, 27 March 1918, Page 5

TITANIC STRUGGLE UNABATED

CLOSE INFANTRY FIGHTING. GERMANS FORCK THE PASSAGE OF THE SOMME. AT GREAT SACRIFICE OF LIKE. TANKS SAVE TACTICAL DISASTER. Received March 20, 11.2.5 p.m. London, March 25. The Press Bureau reports: Our troops this morning on the Somme, northward of Waucourt, beat oil' continuous heavy attacks with complete success, our artillery and machine-guns inflicting heavy losses. Our low-flying aeroplanes repeated attacked the enemy's advancing columns further in the rear. A 'heavy attack in the afternoon by fresh enemy troops enabled them to progress westward and south-westward, of Bapaume, in the direction of Courcelette. We have been pressed back southward of Peronne at several places to slightly westward of the Somme. The enemy further south made some progress, capturing Guiscard and Nesle. French reinforcements arrived in this neighborhood. Our troops, though tired, are in good heart, fighting splendidly, the enemy only progressing at the cost of heavy sacrifices. Our losses in material have been heavy and include a number of tanks. Reuter Service. London, March 25. It is authoritatively stated that the British retired voluntarily from Bapaume, westward whereof we possess excellent defences. The town itself is relatively unimportant. It is significant [that the German war correspondents speak of the German losses at Bapaume as comparatively heavy. The headquarters correspondent states that on the evening of the 25th the titanic struggle was unabated and continues, although the enemy artillerying shows a tendency to decrease owing to the increasing difficulty of advancing the guns. Contrariwise, no stage of the war has seen such close infantry fighting. The manner wherein the guns, ianks, and transport were withdrawn behind the retiring line constitutes a marvellous feat.

After crossing the Somme we blew up alt the bridges except one, which was Iso commanded Iby our guns that it was [more advantageous to leave it. The ; enemy casualties in his efforts to cross ! the Somme were prodigious. Again and again massed parties on rafts and pontoons were annihilated by our guns. Ultimately a passage was effected by the famous Brandenburg Iron Corps, near Idcourt, under a hailstorm of fire, but only after innumerable failures. At a certain place a large force of the enemy thrust a way through and gained what promised to develop into a distinct tactical advantage, but during an enemy pause to reorganise, ten tanks advanced and caused havoc in the German ranks, and finallv drove them back.

I The scenes on the roadH leading to the rear were remarkable during the past three days, with parties of civilians and villagers shepherded by the soldiers mixed with labor groups of imuassive Orientals in all varieties of headgear, and African natives grinning as though the thing was a huge joke.