Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1915-05-13
TELLS OF RECENT BLOODY :
FIGHTING AROUND YPREs
Official British Eyewitness Writes Of
Remarkable Success Gained
in Few Hours.
ADMITS LOSSES ARE HEAVY
In Defense OF Historic Town, Incom-
parable Infantry Repeated Great
Deeds Which Their Comrades Per-
formed Half "A Year Ago.

formed Half Year Ago.
| Especial Cable to The Times Dispatch
LONDON, May 1.-THE official Brit
fsh eyewitness" writes the following
| account of the recent bloody fighting
around Yprcs:
EARLY on Saturday the Germans
were preparing an attack in strength
against our lines running east and
| northeast of Ypres, and were concen-
| trating under cover of violent ar
! tillcry fire. At 10 a. NJ. the battle
| began. The Germans attacked our line
+. from the Ypres -Poelcapelle Road to
within a short distance of the Menin
high road.
| Evidently their intention was to
break our front In the vicinity of tho
| Ypres- Roulers Railway. to the north
and south OF which their most deter
mined assaults were delivered. I'm
! der this pressure our front was pcne-
trated at some points around Frezen-
| berg.
| AT 4;3o r. NJ we made counter
| attack between tho Sonnebek Road, and
| Our advance was conducted most gall
! lantly, but was checked before long by
machine guns.
"ln the meanwhile, the enemy
launched another attack through the
! woods south of the Nenin Road and at
the same time threatened our left north
| of Ypres with fresh masses. Most des-
peratc fighting ensued, the German in
fantry coming again and again and
gradually forcing our troops back.
oh u srt
spite OF the repeated countcrattacks
! During the night the fighting con-
unued to rage with increasing fury.
our line was broken at different points.
at one time the enemy's infantry
ipoured through along the Poelcappelle
! Road and even got AS far as Wieltje
! so far as the Ypres region is con-
cerned this was. for us. our most sue
cessfnl day. Our line remained In
tact. our losses were comparatively
slight. and. owing to the targets pre-
scntcd by the enemy. the action re-
solved itself on our part into pure
killing.
The reason for this very determined
effort to crush our left on the part OF
the Germans is not far TO seek. 1t is
probable for some days they had been
/ in possession of information which led
them to suppose that we intended to
iapply pressure on the right Of our line.
land their great attack upon Ypres was
undertaken with the view of divertinG
us from our purpose. The Germans
rightly held that the best manner of
injecting an expected hostile offensive
! lis to forestall It by attacking in an
other quarter
| FAILURE DUE TO SPLE~DID
ENDURANCE of ALLIES
I'm this instance their leaders acted
, with the utmost determine ton and en-
creS and the soldiers fought with
the greatest courage. The failure of
their effort was due to tho splendid
endurance of our troops. who held tho
line under fire which again and
again hlotted out whole lengths of the
detcnses, and killed the defenders by
scores. Time after time were the
parapets destroyed and time after time
did the thinning survivors build them
again and await the next onset as
! steadily as before.
| In the defense of this Same historic
| town. our Incompatible infantry re-
| peatcd the great deeds which their
comrades performed half n year ago.
Beaten back by most desperate on.
siaughts, which were hacked by n ter
rihce artillery support, the services
rendered by Our troops in this quarter
cannot at present be estimated, 70,
their full significance can only he
realized in the light of future events.
but so Ear their devotion has indi-
| south.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, another
struggle had been In progress on
| portion or the front covered by the
| right OF our line and the left OF the
| French. a tremendous cannonade was
suddenly started by the artillery OF
| the allies twenty miles to the south
| At a. NJ. the commandment began
| slowly at first. and then growing, until
the whole air quivered with the rush
of the larger shells and the earth shook
with the conclusion of the guns. In
a few minutes the whole distant land
! scape disappeared in smoke and dust
| Shortly before 6 o'clock our infan-
! try advanced along that part OF our
! front between the Bots Gren.er and
Festubert. On our left. north OF From
! Giles. we stOrmed the German first line
| trenches Hand to hand fighting went
! on for some time, with hayonct, rife
and hand grenade hut we continued
| to hold on to the position throughout
the day and caused the enemy very
| heavy loss. Not only were many Ger.
! mans killed In the bomba rdmcnt, but
F, their repeated efforts To drive us from
the captured position proved costly.
"On our right, north OF Festubert
our advance met with considerable
opposition, and was not pressed.
Meanwhile, the French. after prolonged
bombardment. had taken the German
position north of Arras.
ION front OF nearly five miles we
had pushed forward from two TO three
miles. capturing 1000 prisoners and
six guns. This remarkable success
was gained by us in n few hours.
Our losses have been heavy"