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"WEEK'S WAR STORY

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"WEEK'S WAR STORY British Tars Attack Sub- L marine Bases. JThird Big German Attack Begun. w' £ Althongh the Freneli Official report on '■Sunday merely referred to local fighting, £ in which, the enemy had been ejected from .their advanced posts, one of the eonnneu- jtiibora remarked that since their san- 'i-na,ry defeat on Thursday in the fierce Ettle of which Givenchy wa? the central $mmt attacked, the (fflrmans had made no further effort, though no doubt th-ey were ^preparing for a fresh blow, either in this for some other quarter of the vast battia- iieldo in Flanders and Franpe. The net result of Thursday's battle was that the (Germans gained absolutely nothing in ex- change for their huge sacrifices of men. .They secured a temporary fc-oting in eome 'of our advanced positions at Giveindhy and Festubert, but on Friday night we,re attacked by the gallant 1st Division and jhurled out, our line being completely ro- established. Beyond some local operations, notably at .feobecq, about five miles north-west of ?'?tbune, whefe the Germans were G:narp- !/• repulsed in in various conflicts on Fri- jdtty, Saturday, and Sunday, there, was no infantry fighting of importance during those days. THE END OF THE LULL. This may be taken as the war story up to the week-end. But the lull did not last long, for on Tuesday we had indications ,of what would 1ft forthcoming, and on ;,¡Wednesday came the opening of the next chapter in the war story, for on that {morning what appeared, and still appears Ao be, a resumption of the German offen- sive was definitely reported. It was not ton such an ambitious scale as the attacks pf March 1 and April 9, but the usual [violent bombardment was followed by in- fantry attacks on the whole British front South of the Somme, including the French troops on the immediate right of the Bri- tish line. Those attempts were all repulsed, but .later in the morning the enemy attacked again, end captured the village of Villers- iBretonneux, about ten miles east of iAimiens, on the railway to Nesle. Aroomd this place a fierce battle raged throughout ,the day, and was still going on when Sir Douglas Haig sent his report on Wednes- day night. Other attacks, seemingly less important, end probably intended as diversions, were mode by the Germans on tire north bank cf the Somme and to the north of Albert, l ut these had no success whatever." On ,t-,al"ce the day went decidedly against the Germans, who, in addition to the re- ■pulses mentioned above, were defeated in an enterprise against our positions east of q, and suffered heavily in British raids near Festubert, the Forest of Dieppe, and Meteran. DRAMATIC SURPRISE AT ZEE- BRUGGE. But thq most interesu^y feature of the Twk*; from & British point of view, was ouratt.ack upon the German submarine s at Zeebrugge and Ostend. The Sec- retary of the Admiralty on Tuesday made 1:: the following announcement:—"Early -this morning a naval raid was made on Ostend and Zeebrugge, which are being -zeo& by the enemy as destroyer and sub- marine bases. Our forces are returning, rrnd scanty information so far iffeceived is to the effect that the raid met with a reasonable moasure of success. Wit-h the exception of covering sh"'ps, the forces consisted of auxiliary vessels and cf six absolete cruisers. Five of these cruisers, ^filled with concrete, were used as block .ships, and after being run aground were, Ton accordance with orders, blown up and .abandoned by their crews." ( It was hell while it lasted, declared a, man who was present; the Union Jack .wae planted on the Mole. It is said the ;-experie>noe« of those on board the old bruiser Vindictive were of a character ,which recall some of the stories of naval cutting out under the guns of fortresses Sn old days. The Vindictive was equipped for a landing party and also fitted with f]a me-prc jectors, bomb-throwers, and other devices to deal with the German garrison. The cruiser is no small target, but she iwas put alongside the Zeebrugge Mole as if going to the pier in her own harbour. Time and again the old ship was struck; her masts and bridge were carried away. and much damage was done to her upper "works, but still the crew stuck it n the • dogged British manner until their job r!9ias done. By bomb or torpedo, a 20-yard b-olt, was nu:de in the Mole, and when details come ,out there will be many tales to tell of the work of the seaplane men in the task of observation, etc. A MARINE MISSION TO OSTEND. And as to Ostend, it is stated, on the authority of some of the 150 men of the Royal Marines and Sailors, brought into Dover, that they were in the Ostend land- ing party, and were satisfied that thev -ihad done a good deal of damage to the enemy. Their own losses had been heavy, ;õut they were in the brightest of spirits. !'Although the weather for miles out in 'the C'hannel at the time of the action was ?4ea.r c,n the B,ri.tjc5b.  t g? clear on the Bnti?h F.'i'JiJP"}U"" f¡ thi?k mist :md di''iz?.ir? ? .n 'in ÜH' vicinity of Ostend, and this caused the Uncertainty as to .whether what was Achieved at Ostend in blocking the ha.r- IJonr was thoroughly effectual. The veil will, in more than one sense, Boon be lifted, and we shall be able to add In any stirti-ng incidents to this chanter of the war tory, not'only in connection with our splendid effort to attack the German wasps in their nests, but we trust to continue the tale of defence and counter-attack by our men on land, prov- ing once more the impenetrable barrier of the Allied Armies on the Western front. Thursday's British Official states:— Her.,vy.flg11ting took place all night in and around Villers Bretonrseux, and still continue?!. Our troops regained ground !bv counter-attac-ks, and have taken a num- Iber of prisoners. Fighting yesterday on the whole of this front was most severe and heavy, and heavy camlaltieq WCRO, in- flicted on the enemy by our artillery, in- fantry. and tanks. North of the Villers Bretonneus-St. Quentin-road the enemy three times attacked our positions, and on raeb occor cn repulsed with lofs. Dur- ing the fighting the enemy made use of a iew bnks." The French Ofiicial states that in the course of exceedingly bitter fighting, in ■which the Germans concentrated the whole of their strength against Hangard. the village was lost and regained and finally P>st again, the enemy suffering very heavy casualties. The artillery duel "was very violent on both banks of the ÄTTP. and the French mnde several suc- cessful -fwprise attacks in de Lar^i-gny end Lorraine doctors. A number of pri- eoneiv were taken, J

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