St. John's Daily Star, 1916-10-06

              the st john's daily star nelm found land volume 11 3.00 per annum friday october 6 1916 price one cent no 233 allies win three-day battle by henry wood a hies a rtillery simply pounded every obstruction into the earth doing indescribable destruction correspondent's viv id description oj the amazing and altogether unpre cedented scenes at the fall of com bles united press staff correspondent special correspondence of the st john's daily star apth the french armies near w combles sept 29.—horses lashed into a furious gallop by mad riders dashing forward over a sunken o?a with huge quantities of ammunit ion aeroplanes hovering abovs vul ture-like awaiting the fall of combles men sweating fighting their way for ward over shell-packed roads in ter rible shell-fire these were some qf the dramatic scenes that preceded the capture of fofe strongly-fortified village that had olqcjcecj the allied advance north of the so'moie the eventual capture of combles ecame a certainty on tuesday morn ing when french cavalry patrpu ad vancing northeastward and english cavalry patrols thrusting southeast *• ward met east of combles they thus ( completely encircled the village cut v ting off the last communications with the german army in the rear ~ approaching combles s on the same morning i approached t combles from the west starting from i maricourt the junction point from 1 which the french and english offen * sive was launched july 1 and travers * ing each successive step in the advance s oiade in the intervening three months s towards the attainment of this great objective when we arrived with i m less than a mile and a quarter of t combles the town itself was then un < dergoing the final bombardment and surrender 1 although combles was a mere vil i lage of 1,500 inhabitants the germans < had so fortified every house especially i the cellars where machine guns were i installed that the allies were forced i to employ siege methods they com i pletely encircled the town with their ! heavy artillery which gradually closed in with every advance of the infantry lines . most terrible siege from the viewpoint of the enormous quantity of artillery massed against it and also from the incalculable number of shells rained into it combles can easily boast of having undergone the most terrific siege in the history of the world it was only on reaching the most advanced artillery positions before combles that one could grasp oiathe matically the methodical progress which had rendered the allies new tactics of advancing by heavy artillery absolutely irresistible though the final artillery lines before combles consist ed of comparatively light batteries these had been rushed forward during the night over ground rendered impas sable by shell-holes to everything but foot soldiers but while troops were tugging guns across this ground a veritable army of soldiers had sunk a tortuous winding roadway several feet below the surface of the ground paving it bricks from nearby houses wrecked by artil lery fire over this when we arrived the next morning munition caissons drawn by four six and even eight horses were dashing along every mo-j ment with an incredible number of shells necessary to feed these f advanced lines of artillery which coukt be reach ed in no othr way - back from these advanced lines fed by pialloping careening caissons were thousands more soldiers methodically transferring what had been on the pre era shrapnel , shells , about one plane less than a minute the bursting of sev the aviator evidently convinced that ec ! ing days caisson roads into high vays capable ef sustaining huge auto nobile convoys brngirig up neatier mil litions for heavier artillery that hac upplantcd the lighler guns now fur he r advanced-dining the night far hcr behind these automobile fed artil-j ery lines was still a third...army of vorkmen steadily constructing rail vays which were bringing up artillery o gigantic that not only it but its hells can b'e transported only on spec ally railways these huge ieces were supplanting these more ranspprtable field pieces already rush if combles fell before a methodical leavy artillery advance and encircle nent it fell equally before the methodi al construction of roadways from he dirt and-brick bedded wagon o the full gauged rock ballasted steel r ailway time's method marks the p advance on the entire 30 mile i under bombardment aching maurepas which is but a i and a quarter from combles wt had a vivid impression of the actual state of affairs in combles which was then undergoing the same bombard ment that preceded the capture of maurepas instead of being simply lev elled to the ground by allied artillery like other somme villages during the first few weeks of the offensive had been literally drivn into the ground by terrific shell pounding the village had almost disappeared from the surface of the earth leaving only the naked site pock-marked by shells like the sur rounding open country an officer explained that this was the result of the allies new atrillery methods whereby shells are driven as deep as possible into the ground before pfor the purpose of ousting ms who now dig in from 50 work of aeroplanes s being several miles in ad he french line of observation age balloons the final obser vation resulting in the capture of the village was entrusted to aeroplanes in great numbers they circled above the village at a great height like a flock of huge vultures waiting " only the cer tainty that life was extinct before swooping down and seizing their prey yet so.&trongly were the geramns fort fied in zombies and so completely were they equipped with artillery that almost at the last moment preceding the passage of the village into allied hands when an aeroplane swooped down within range i counted within i<ioi^,"-^fr€*n ; broaklyii short of war materials german army order captured by the british shows that the enemy lack guns aeroplanes and war supplies oi all sorts—pays tribute to british power and organisation me::d of praise given - to the british infantry war correspondents head n ql arters in fance oct 5 thy is short of guns aeroplanes ir material of all sorts but not ot ood according to a most sensation ally interesting document the british ha\c captured which is called the establishment of the fourth german corps in the battle of the somme the document was written as instruc tions to the troops it was drawn from ot the battle by general count rnim a corps commander who has been fighting opposite the british throughout the offensive this long detailed revelation of the inner thoughts of the german staff dis cusses the methods and short-comings of every branch of the german army in view cf the unexpected power and organization the british have shown the document started out by paying a tribute to the british infantry which i has undoubtedly learned much since last autumn's offensive and shows i tin in attack t document continues the english so has physique and training favour one must acknowledge 1 o the english in rapidly con sohclating captured positions and their great tenacity in defence of them dccause the breech actions of so many german r.flcs have been clogged with dirt general yon arnim suggests in the document that it would be ad visable to fit a cover for the breech of their rifles like that used in the british army which can be easily unfastened and then hrngs from the rifle explicit instructions are given in the document to the artillery to change their methods of placing batteries m a village behind slopes because cf the british method of distribution of their artillery fire which prodigiously search es all obvious shelters italians march thru albania arc menacing flank of the bulgar forces in macedonia fjew york oct s.—the journal has the following from rome to day italian troops have landed in south ern albania where they have occupied two cities and are progressing east ward menacing the right flank of the bulgar forces in western macedonia it is scmi-ofiicially stated that the italian force landed at santi quaranta about 45 miles southwest of the ex trmee right of the bulgars line and about 80 miles southwest of monastir they pushed forward to the railroad running northeast from santi quar anta occupying delvinon wheh is 6|/2 miles inland then occupied argy roksatrong seven miles north of deu vinon * t ss sfc yesterday's west bound express left glenwood at 8.45 this morning british gain in macedonia berlb ad nits the loss ot the village of yemkeui oct s.—fighting at yeni keui which ended yesterday morn ing resulted in complete success for odr troops not only did we hold the portion of the village south of seres but we also occupied a portion of the north road thus the whole village is now in our possession the remainder of wednesday was without incident and was spent in con solidating our position which extends from orlika bridge along the seres road to yenikeui thence back to the river through both karajkeui villages during the fighting of the last few cfr.ys the lowland scottish battalion and the irish battalion distinguished themselves the enemy suffered heav ily in the recent fighting captured villages berlin oct s.—re-occupation by the british of the village of yenikeui east of the struma on the macedonian front is reported in to-day's war of fice statement which follows nidja planina overlooking the cerna valley east of monastir is held by the enemy otherwise the positions are unchanged from presba lake to the struma the battle on the leh bank of the struma is still in progress the village of yenikeui has aga ; n been ios much shelling london oct s.—south of the ancre on the somme front there was intermittent shelling during the night srys to-day's official announce ment north of the schwaben re doubt our artillery caused many cas ualties amongst the enemy infantry on the mave a successful raid was carried out by a london territorial battalion the en tiy attempted un successfully io enter our trenches west cf st hoi won victory in balkans forces of the entente score a big sue cess in macedonia and drive for ward their lines toward monastir italians make progress in march through albania—much fighting on east front petrogkad claims victory in the lutsk neighborhood oct 6—with the russians still vigorously attacking the austro germans in volhynia west of lutsk and thence along the whole front of the dniester and in galicia emperor will iam has started for the front to join general yon linsengin near lutsk where the principal fighting is taking place at various places in this sector and in galicia petrograd asserts the austro-ger mans have been defeated berlin how ever takes issue with the russian war office statement and declares the only point where russians reached the teutonic lines was north of zubilno and that here they later were driven out of the captured positions contradictory reports altho there is some divergence in the official reports from sofia and buchar est concerning the fate of the ruman ians which was thrown across the pan ube into bulgaria the fact is patent ac cording to a bucharest communication that they haye ceased their demon strations and withdrawn to the left bank of the danube but sofia asserts a battle was fought in northern bul garia between rostchuk and turtukai where they crossed the rfver which was covered with the rumanian dead as a result of their forced speedy retire ment back to their own soil all attempts by the rumanians and cor.tinuued on page 2 continuued on page 2 t j ♦ ♦ i ♦ ♦ . ♦ i if it's value yo^wairit : i * go to / i i b o wringj full lines / ♦ [ floor canvas j ! an * / ji l linoleums i i . . 1 also i " •:; 1 1 8-1 congoleums | very newest designs i . \ x : = i : congoleum squares | i and mats ji o ■ sizes ixl yard 1w 2 , i 2 x2 3xtt 3^x4 i finished with wide rich border j ii hew \ ]| i room papers ! and freizes to match see them | i bowring brothers f limited i 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