FAILURE AT YPRES.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 July 1918, Page 6

FAILURE AT YPRES.

mVMI TROOPS DISPERSED. SPLENDID WORK OF THE GUNS. Tho failure of the German's' bid for Y])re s on May 8 is .described by the special correspondent of the Morning Post on the British front. ■ He says:— The usually prolonged calm was broken yesterday by another German failure in Flanders. All attack apparently planned on ambitious lines, between Uocic and tho Ypres canal en a front of between live and six miles, was completely frustrated. Less than half of Hie enemy troops alloted for this enterprise weje able- to leave their trenchesThose who did, succeeded in holding some destroyed British defences in and around Ridge Wood for ten hours. Eng. lis'h and Scottish troops turned them out. the end of the day found the Germans !>ack in their original line in the semimarshland around Vierstraat, considerably weakened by our artillery and ma-«hine-gun fire. There is reason to believe that five German divisions prepared to attack the British and French yesterday morning. They were expected to improve the tnemy line by driving eastward into the British near Ridge Wood, and. northwood against the French defending the four Flemish hills that overlook Bailleul. All that materialised,'at the end of an extremely heavy bombardment, proved to be elements "of the 52nd Reserve Di- : vieion, a perfectly fresh . German formation, and the 30th Division, the first, driving against Ridge Wood, the second against the British right and the.French left with obvious intention of separating the allied forces. Two other German Divisions opposite the French tried to assemble, but the French themselves attacked shortly before in order to improve their lino near the La Clytte-Kemmel road, and there completely dispersed tlie enemy. Similarly tho'British artillery plastered the German assembly trenches around Voormczeele, and the division holding that sector near the canal did not attempt to move.

The Herman bombardment of the Ridge Wood defences was so intense that crar outpost, line in front of them \ms completely destroyed. When wave* of the Knd Reserve Division appeared at about half past nine our men simply fell hack behind the wood and left the battered remnants to the enemy. The Germans tried hard to establish themselves in the wood. They dug and brought up machine-guns, atfd throughout the day reinforcements .passed forward into the area of blackened slumps, which is all that remains of the wood itself. West, of it. the' British troops had to fall back astride the Wytschaete Road as far as Klein Vierstraat, a distance of perhaps of .500 yards. Towards the Ypres Canal, however, they' did not yield ft yard of ground. The enemy cvidentlv thought towards tlie evening that he had the wood and that this serious obstacle in his. path had at last been removed. About halfpast seven, however, just as the light was failing. Ms hopes began to fail as we'd. A British barrage fell upon the German machine-gun posts at the oastem fringe of the wood, and from the other side came the Seaforths, picking' their way through the stump 3 with ominous deliberation. Their bayonets were, ready, gome of the Germans declined to meet them and disappeared in the barrage. Enough remained, however, to put up a lively litflo struggle among the niins of the trenches they had triea to reconstruct. Before it was quite dark the Seaforths had cleared the wood completely, killed quite a, number of the enemy, and taken some prisoners, including an officer. Middlesex troops were among the other units engaged. Pockets o! Germans in the open ground west of tlie wood were not cleared until the morning.