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Show FREEuCH MENACE RAILROAD Troops of Kaisei Make Desperate Assaults in Effort to Protect Lines of Communication in Range of Enemy's Cannon; Are Repulsed With Heavy Loss. ARTILLERY DUELS CONTINUE DAILY Official Reports of Hostile Hos-tile Armies Claim Various Vari-ous Gains; Allies and Toes Tacitly Admit Certain Reverses; Teutons Teu-tons Still Hold Forest of Ailly. fpr tl Cable by Amntnm With London D.UJ Telos tab tad IntoroaUoBa! vo SorHco.) PRI8 Jan 12 The Germans haTe assumed a violent counter offensive against the advanced French positions to the north and east of Soissons in a desperate atterai t to retrieve fhe three liars of trenches more than a rail an lemjgh captured from them during th past four days efemfic fighting. Opening with a vigorous bombard ment shortly before midnight the Ger man batteries shelled incessantly the rren h trenches all during jtbe night, and today they followed up the can non ade with an attack aga nst two of the moat advanced points of the uewly organized French line. gainst the plateau of Pemera, on the north bank of the Anne to the cast of the plateau and against spur No 132 the promontory which -iees at the cxtren e eastern edge of the plateau of regny they delivered important attacks The r objeet was to Tetake spur lSl from which the French guns seriously menace their positions and threaten their line of rail vgy coramunieat on which now has been brought Into range when the report was sent from the front ton ht the battle was still in progress. The French were hold ng their own but the Germans were attacking with nprecedentod energy Earl er reports from th s section of the front g ves news of the engagement up to toiav Drive Germans BarJt lot onlv were the French able to re pel the repeated counter attacks of the Germans but in burling tl em back upon their reserve ros t ons they succeeded suc-ceeded in for ing the retreat ng in vaders past the r then first line trenches to suj porting positions in the rear Those newly made trenches were occn pied and held by the French LONDON Jan 12 Points at which host le for es cla m their greatest sue cesses were ignored in the Berlin and Paris ofhcial statements issued today and by their onuss on tactictly admit the claims of the ri al headquarters Tho Gern an ofScial stateu ent utter ly dsregarls the fighting to the north of Soisson where tha Trench havo been stead 1 ncreasing tho pressure against the co b ned forces of Gen erals on Kluk and on Ilceringeiu Th s undoubtedlv is the most important engagement of the n any isolated com bats raging along the ent re battle front from tho sea to Alsace Germans Claim Gain On the other hand where the French roporU say that on the Argonno. as far east as the Meuse there is noth ng to report the Gern ana n ake the folio t ng ofl cial dam In the Argonoe a French pos t on waa taken on the 1 o nan h ghway We captured two oflicers and 140 men In tne battles n the eastern Argonne rcg on we hao capturod s ce Ft lay one niaior three cap tains thirteen 1 eutenants anl 1600 men The French losses in eluding the killed a d wounded on this 1 m ted 1 attlefleld. are est mated at 1j00 1 reach atte npts to atta k in the forest of A (lj so theast of St Mih el have fa le 1 Of the opcrat ons along the (Continued on Page Fo) FRENCH If TIE GERMAN RAILROAD (Cont nued from Page One ) Meuse the French statement says On the he ghts of the Meuse two German attacks one in the environs of Consensevoye and tho other at Boile Boucb ot were re p Ised Southeast of Cirey sur Vezouse one ot our detacl ments surprised and put to fl ght a com pahy of German troops who were p llaging the village of kt Sauveur Both beadq arters report act on n the reg on. of Perthes les HurluB where the Trench have advanced unt 1 the t 1 ne is almost stra ghtened and the deitu controlled ra lwav line by wh ch General von Heer ngen s re ctual ng h s t oops Is be ng battered by tho 1 rench guns Both cla m ga ns 1 rench Statement Tollow ng s the liench statement Near Perthes the field fort lo cated to the north of Bealizejour tarn east of Perthes was the scene ot a sanguinary confl ct The enemy succeeded in establ shing a t ench ns de the cartaworKS of wh ch we hold the salient The battle continues Opposed to this is the German claim wh ch says The French attack which started yesterday afternoon in the region of Perthes withered away before our fire The French met heavy losses Art llery confl cts accord ng to the French statement are going on n the Vosges and heavy bl zzards are re ported in Alsace where no operations are reported The German report, howeve states that the French attacked last n ght to the south ot Cernay (Sennhe m) n Alsace but were repulsed w th heavy losses It adds that the battle was re suraed th s morn ng but repo ts no defin to result |