WESTERN FRONT.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 August 1918, Page 5

WESTERN FRONT.

HEAVY FIGHTING,

BRITISH ADVANCE FOUR MILES.

FALL OF NOYON IMMINENT

Received Aug. 25, 5.5 p.m,

London, Aug. 24. The British have encircled Thiepval. A bitter struggle is proceeding "within a mile of Bapaume. The British advance was continued cast of Albert.

Fourteen thousand prisoners have been captured within three days. Belragnies has been taken. The British Third Army hag processed four miles on a front of twelve miles.

j The Fourth Army is reported to have captured Bray.

German motor boats attempting a reconnaisance outside Dunkirk were oriven off, losing onp boat. The Allies suffered no casualties.

The fall of Xoyon is believed to be imminent.—Aus. X.Z. Cable Assoc, and Reuter.

GERMANS SURPRISED,

BRITISH SECURE HIGH GROUND. BITTER STRUGGLE PRECEDES CAPTURE OF ALBERT.

Received Aug. 25, 5.5 p.m. London, Aug. 23.

Six thousand prisoners have been taken in three days during the course of the British advance. They include upwards of a thousand taken before noon to-day. also a thousand on Thursday southward of the Sorume. The Germans were surprised at many points in the latter region, Sir! Douglas Haig quickly securing the high ground in the south, including the towns of Cruignes, Heleville, and Chuignoles. The Germans elsewhere were only overpowered after llerce fighting. The British lines are now reaching from Boyelles to Hamelincourt and Gomiccourt. Here many were captured in the first rush.

A bitter battle preceded the capture of Albert. Before victory was achieved it was necessary to wipe out a multitude of machine-gun emplacements foioieu by the wreckage of houses and the famous church wiherefrom the figures of the Madonna and child hung suspended for a long time, and is now a Btriking monument of the Hun's destructiveness. The sight which' greeted the Tommies who were pouring >in on Thursday was the church levelled to the height of the other ruins round about. The Germans tenaciously clung to the position, which cost so much to attain, and was only given 'up after the dead littered the broken piles of brick and stone throughout the city. The prisoners here totalled 7SO, including a battalion commander and ibis staff.

The city was attacked from two sides. While the brief haze of the mornrng lasted, the infantry crossed the Ancre southwards and took up their position in the rear of the city. Then the forces holding the railway and western edge poured out, striking the city frontally. Shortly after ten the desperate resistance ended, and the divisions further south were able to use the tanks advantageously, working up the exposed slope to take its measure, and, after severe fighting, pushing tho Germans out of the so-called "Happy Valley." Meanwhile, the British carried a new line around northward of Bray, taking two hundred prisoners from the hardfighting Germans, and bringing up the total for the first ten hours to 1500.

There was furious fighting elsewhere. [Beauregard Dovecote changed hands five times.—United Press.

CLEAN, SWIFT BLOWS,

TWO GERMAN ARMIES SHAKEN. ENEMY FIGHTING BLINDLY AND DESPERATELY.

NEW ZBALANDERS HAVE DISTINGUISHED PLAOE. Received Aug. 25, 5.5 p.m. London, Aug. 23. Mr. Percival Phillips writes: On a swaying front of more than thirty miles, between Arras and Ghaulnes, across two rivers, with scarred hillsides on their flanks, the Huns arc desperately engaged in losing the last battle of the Somme series. Clean, swift blows have shaken two German armies. They were wellplanned blows, aimed at vulnerable parts of the machine, not a sudden thirty-imie thrust requiring the utmost energy, but I a calm, unhurried thrust. The thrust tore, with economy of man-power, the gradually increasing pressure. extending its limit until it embraces more than the old Somme battlefield, the enemy fighting blindly and desperately, losing blood at every blow, and hoping that each attack, would be the climax of the British counter-offensive. '

General Nevinson states that Thursday's attack was carried out by part of General Byng's Third Army in the northern sector, and part by Gener.nl Rawlinson's Fourth Army in the southern. It is now permissible to mention tnat the New Zealanders hold a distinguished place in the Third Army, and the Australians in the Fourth, both these, durI ing the last two or three days, having maintained their remarkable reputation for qualities .which count in war. There is hardly anything to choose between then). At the same time we must not i forget the silent, stolid battalions of the old British counties.

The Australian staff officers repeatedly praised a brigade of a certain British division. They kept saying that the brigade did extraordinarily welL Praise | from such a quarter is weighty and valuable.—Press Assoc.