The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-05-13
EYEWITNESS TELLS
 HOW GERMANS TRIED TO BREAK ALLIES LINE
,cont,nued from Page One,

atsc ohcf desperation and were beaten off with cor responding slaughter
 At one point 300 of the enemy ad- vanced from the wood. and it is affirmed that not one escaped.
 'On the eastern face at 6:3o D. m. an Hooge, but the force attempting it broke and fell back under shrapnel. The ground was literally heaped with dead.
 AS night came on the fury of the Ger man offensive gradually slackened, the hours of darkness passing in quietness.
 During the day our troops saw some of the enemy stripping the British dead in our abandoned trenches and several Germans afterward were noticed dressed in khaki.
 A Successful Day
 50 far as the Ypres region was con ceined this for LIS was successful day. Our line which on the northeast had been reconstructed, remained intact. Our losses were comparatively slight and the action on our part was pure killing. 'The reason for this determined effort to crush our left is not far to seek. It Is probable that the Germans had be- lleved we intended to attack on the right of our line and that their great attack was undertaken with a view to divert ns us from our purpose. Their leaders acted with the utmost determination and en- ergy and their soldiers fought with the greatest courage
 "The failure of the Herman effort was due to the splendid endurance of our troops, who held the line under fire which killed the defenders by scores Time after time were parapets destroNeu and time after time did the thinning band of survivors build them up again ana await the next onset as steadily as oe- fore
 Farther south in the meantime or S,,nday another struggle had been IT nrorress on that portion of the front GOV cred; by the right of our line and the Ter, of the French, for when the firing around Ypres was temporarily subsidng durfni the early hours of the morning another and even more tremendous cannonade was suddenly started by the artillery of the allies some 20 miles to the south. At o'clock the bombardment began, anf soon the V hole air quivered with the rusi of shells and the earth shook with th' concussion of gcrs.
 Storm German Trenches shortly before o'clock our infantr, advanced along our front betweeV tn l Bois Grenier and Festubert. On the iert 1 north of Fromelles, we stormed the Ger man trenches. Hand to hand fighting wen on for sometime with bayonet, rifle ant hand grenade, but we continued to noi' on to this position throughout the da' and caused the enemy very heavy losses | for rot only were many Germans kiiieo Il l the tombar dnent but their repeated ei. forts to drive us from the captured posi tions proved Irost costly.
 ..,sl.s f h0 bert. odr advance met with consioeraoi oprcsiricn and was not pressed
 "Meanwhile the French after pro longel bomba rdme mt had taken the Ger man rcsitions north of Arras on iron ! of nearly five miles and had pushed for ward from two to three miles. capturin POO prisoners and six guns. This remark ab,a success was gained by our allies fl the course of . few hours.
 1 Losses Are Heavy
 "As may tc supposed our losses hay been heavy. On other parts of the iron H our action was confined to that of tn
 rtillerv. but this proved most effective E all communications of the enemy bein
 subjected to SO heavy fire that in som quarters all movement by daylight with in range of our lines was rendered imprac ttcsble
 "During the day our aeroplanes attacke several points of importance. One of ou airmen, who was sent to bombard tn
 canal bridge near Don. was wounded but continued and fulfilled his mission Near Wytschete an aviator pursued German aeroplane and fired a whole bel from his machine gun at it. The Taub swerved righted itself for second an |: then descended from height of severs
 thousand feet straight to the ground.
 "On the other hand q British machin
 unfortunately was brought down ove
 Lille by the enemys anti-aircraft gum
 but 1t is hoped that the aviator egcaped.
 In regard to the German allegation ths
 the British used gas in their attacks 0
 Hill 60, the eyewitness says:
 No asphyxiating gases have been en
 ployed by us at any time nor have tlfs Iyet been brought Into play by our allts1
 The eyewitness also denies. the Germ<
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