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Show The British Fleet Shells Westend, While Land Forces Go Forward Northeast of Nieuport; Movement Is Reported as Successful. PROGRESS MADE AT OTHER POINTS French Making an Attack At-tack All Along the Alsace Front, a Dis- tance of About Fifty Miles; Germans Are Fighting Desperately. PARIS, Dec. 16, 10:45 p. m. The following official statement was issued by tie war office tonight: "There has been slight progress as far as the sea, to the northeast of Nieuport, to the southeast of j Ypres, and along the railroad in the ! direction of La Bassee. ' "There is no other notable inci- dent to report along the rest of the front." (Bpeclal Table by Arrangement with London Dally Telegraph ad Iclftroatioqal News Service.) PARIS, Dec. 16. By tho eo-operntion of the British fleet with the land forces the allies today were able to push their advance northeast of Nieuport to the seacoast in the vicinity of Westend. The warships lyiuir off the Germau positions po-sitions in Westend poured an' incessant inces-sant hail of shells into the town. This ' served to gain more ground iu their inarch toward Ostend, part of the general gen-eral plau believed to .have been launched with the resumption of the offensive of-fensive throughout Flanders and eastern France. The action extended from a point northeast of Nieuport through the district dis-trict about the town of Lombaertzyde and to a point on the coast a few miles from which the shells were crashing into Westend. The brunt of the fighting was borne bv the British and Belgian troops, the latter, inspired by the thought that Ostend was. their ultimate objective, throwing themselves into the battle with revived enthusiasm, despite their terrific ordeals of the earlier weeks along the coast. The success of the bombardment and Its dependent land movement was chron- Icled in the 11 o'clock official communique com-munique from the war office. The afternoon aft-ernoon communique had announced only that thfl British were violently bombarding: bombard-ing: Westend and this statement was supplemented in the latter bulletin, which said: '"Slight progress lias been made as far as the sea coast northeast of Nieuport." Nieu-port." At other points in Flanders today was much in favor of the allies. A counterattack counter-attack by t he Germans on the Belgian position at St. Georges was repulsed, the Belgians throwing the Germans back for heavy losses and following up their advantage ad-vantage by occupying some farms on the left bank of the Yser, which have great strategic value. To the southeast of Yser progress was made, aa well as along the railroad leading- to La Bassee. This field of action has been fought over again and again with first one side and then tte other stubbornly holding to each foot, of territory and yielding only after fierce onslaughts. In today's engagements engage-ments Ihe opposing troops were so close to eacli other that hand grenades were used with fearful effect, while the bayonet bayo-net was, as usual, the favorite of the allies. Ferocious Fighting. Near St. Eloi the battle raged with especial ferocity and here, although the allies are reported Lo have made progress, it is referred to by the war office as "not so perceptible as at other points." In the direction of Klein Zillebeke the British gain was greater. The afternoon official communique claims victories for the allies in artillery engagements In the region of Arras, In the region of the Aisne and In Champagne. Cham-pagne. Krpnch victory is also announced in the Woevre district, while several German Ger-man attacks in the forest of Mont Martre were repulsed, while all the trenches which were seized by the French in Sunday's Sun-day's fighting are said to have been held. Paris Excited. Paris is greatly excited over the hom-bardnient hom-bardnient of the English east -oast towns by German wa rships. An expert view held here is that the Germans :;ent out a few cruisers un this despprate mission with t he idea of forcing t lie Knglish to call off their warships from In front of Westend. With the coast positions subject sub-ject to bombardment and with the line Inland In-land holding against the most desperate onslaughts, the Gei mans are believed to be planning some means to get rid of this coast squadron so Hint they may take up I their delayed march on Calais and Dunkirk. |