OCR Text |
Show FURIOUS BLOWS HT VERDUNCONTINUE FIGHTING CHARACTERIZED AS MURDEROUS STRUGGLE FOR VANTAGE POINT. Heavy Masses of Germans Hurled Against French Troops in Endeavor En-deavor to Retake Grounds Lost After Fierce Struggle. London. The Germans have replied to the terrific French offensive in the Douamont region with assault after assault, and the deadly combat norlh-east norlh-east and northwest of Verdun still is in progress. Heavy masses of German Ger-man troops have been thrown against the picked French troops whose successful suc-cessful attacks won for them the greater portions of Fort Douamont and considerable ground adjacent to the fort of high strategic value. , These newly captured positions the 'French have tenaciously held. Particular Par-ticular mention is made by the French war office of the maintenance of the position in Fort Douamont captured bj the French Monday. The fighting fight-ing at this ipoint is characterized by Paris as "a murderous struggle." Each attack was preceded by 'powerful 'power-ful artillery preparations. Although they were held to the northeast, the Germans would not be denied at iLe Mort Homme, and aRer having been mowed down by the French artillery and machine guns with sanguinary losses in several attacks at-tacks finally gained a footing in trenches to the west of this much-fought much-fought for position. Their tenure of the trenches was short lived, however, how-ever, for the French in a counterattack counterat-tack immediately drove them out. Italy's first anniversary of her entry en-try into the war found her troops on at least one sector in southern Tyrol forced back hy the great Austrian offensive of-fensive upon Italian soil and in general gen-eral retirement to their main lines of defense from the region south of Roverto to the Val Sugana, southeast of Trent." While along the Russian front the usual bombardments have continued almost exclusively, in the Pripet river region the Russians have repulsed attacks at-tacks by the Turks and also have dislodged dis-lodged the Ottoman forces from positions posi-tions on one of the slopes of the Taurus Tau-rus mountains. In their advance on Monsul, with Mesopotamia their objective, ob-jective, the Russians have occupied Sarbecht. |