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Show TWO GREAT BATTLES II English in Picardy and French at Verdun Triumph, Tri-umph, but Furious Fighting Is Kept Up by Germans in Counter-Attacks. Counter-Attacks. BRITISH GAIN ON TWO-MILE FRONT After Forty-eight Hours of Struggle They Advance Ad-vance North of Pozieres Through Strongly Fortified For-tified Positions. (Sperlal Cah! ty Arranfemfnt with Ior.'Soa Dilly Teiermh ad Inicrcailocal Newt Servlw.) LONDON, Aug. 5. Two tremendous battles are being fought in northern France tonight in Picardy and before Verdun. Throughout the day on both fields the allies ha e held the mastery. In a powerful two-days offensive the British have pressed back the German lines north and west of Pozieres, on a front of almost two miles, for a distance dis-tance of a quarter to a third of a mile. After three days of terrific fighting northeast of Verdun, the French have not only halted the new German offensive, offen-sive, but held all the important ground gained by their counter strike. They claim to hold the strong Thiaumont work, the greater part of the village ! of Fleury, and important strategic posi-j posi-j tions west of the Thiaumont-Fleury road, all of which were in the hands , of the Germans before the battle. The i powerful German attacks on the Vaux-J Vaux-J Chapitre front, delivered during the j afternoon, were broken up by the j French tire. The first did not even ! succeed in approaching the French i trenches. A counter attack routed the 1 Germans after they had gained some ' ground in the second assault. ; Wounded Left to Die. The losses on both sides in these two great battles were enormous, according : to news from the front. Thousands of bodies lie unburied, while grievously wounded men are being left to die in the shell swept battleground owing to the impossibility of relief being sent under the fearful fire. The new British success was won by the gallant Australians, veterans of Gallipoli and Flanders, side by sido with the "elerks'? of "Kitcheners new army," who are having their first baptism bap-tism of fire and are emerging soldiers. Men from the homeland and colonies from Sussex and Kent are .taking part in the new "push,M which started the night before last and which has resulted in tho wiping out of positions which were a thorn in tho side of the British, and from which the Germans carried on a terrific barrier fire which broke up the British work of consolidation. 'Important Strategically. The advance puts General Haig's troops in almost full command of all that section of the strongly fortified second line positions of the Germans, and gives them a complete hold on a considerable stretch of the strategically strategical-ly import a nt Pozieres-Bn pan me nigli-road, nigli-road, direct route to their next objective. objec-tive. Reports from the headquarters of General von Kineni, commanding the Teuton forces in Picardy, to grand headquarters head-quarters in Berlin, told of the opening of the new British offensive, "strong forces attacked on an extending front," one of the German reports reads. At the hour of publication, it said, tho fighting was still proceeding heavily. Repulse of earlier British attacks wero claimed. Berlin does not concede the loss of the Thiaumont work, northeast of Verdun. Tho Germans claim to have captured 500 prisoners in this region, and' state that "bitter fighting" is still going on. VON H IN DEN BURG AND ARCHDUKE DIVIDE COMMAND BERLIN, Aug. 5, via London, 7:40 p. m. The command of the entire eastern east-ern front, according to the Lokal An-zeiger, An-zeiger, now is divided bet ween Field Marshal von Undenburg and Archduke (Continued on Pago Three.) Hi BIG BATTLES IN VVEST WON BY ALLIES (ContlnuM from Ona.) rhurlos I r.uwis o' uvu, hoir nmar-cat nmar-cat to niri:in throm-. V'u-A M:ir- li:il on 1 1 iiuIohImli'i; '.s i t out f t on. is aown to i1m Mvtors in wlii.li llonornl v'o.n.t on liotlnnor -.Minnmn.ls, tin hit-tor hit-tor i ho mi i'!' oiuo ooiunmwl Ol tlio :t ivlulnko. It is points! out, s:is tlio novsp:iiior. fh:it Aroluluko ( Imtli-s hst inW nisluvl him.Noli' m tho ro'tMit o(Tonivo aaint t!o lt:iU:ms thtMiii;li o!l pl;inno,'l Mini l;triu;;!y ooouto(i ni:mou ors. His iui-. iui-. 1 1 :i 1 1 - o is yv.-iit niul ho is thoroforo ron-si.loiotl ron-si.loiotl tho host ti:ul;it-lo miin tor tlio jopor:itions nunvt tho luissuins. |