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Show BRITISH HAVE TAKEN FIFTY-SEVEN GUNS ON SOMME LOXDON, Julv 17. 11:50 p. m. The British official statement on the progress of the campaign on the western front issued tonight reads: Rain and heavy mist again interfered with the operations. Nothing of importance im-portance occurred on the British front today. In the local actions which have taken place we have captured some more prisoners and the total number of unwounded German'prisoners taken by us since July 1 is 189 officers and 10,779 of other ranks. The German losses in artillery ire even greater than at first reported. The captured armament already collected col-lected by our troops now includes five eight-Inch howitzers, three six-inch howitzers, four six-inch guns, five other heavy guns, thirty-seven field guns, thirty trench howitzers, sixty-six sixty-six machine guns and many thousands of rounds of ammunition of all descriptions. de-scriptions. The above is exclusive of many guns not yet brought in and numbers destroyed de-stroyed by our artillery bombardment bombard-ment and abandoned by the enemy. A statement issued earlier In the day was as follows: Further important successes have been gained by us. Northwest of Bazentin-le-Petit wood we stormed and captured German second-line po- sittons on a front of 1500 yards. The large number of German dead in this sector bears evidence of the very heavy casualties which the enemy has suffered since our advance began. East of Longueval we still further widened the gap in the German second line by capturing the strongly defended de-fended position of Waterlot farm. On our left flank in Orvillers-La Orvillers-La Boisselle, where there had been continuous hand-to-hand fighting since July 7, wre recaptured the remaining re-maining stronghold of the enemy, together to-gether with two officers and 124 guardsmen, who formed the remnants of the brave garrison. The whole position po-sition is now in our hands. The following captured documents are of interest as showing the heavy casualties which the enemy has suffered suf-fered in recent fighting: "From a company of the Sixteenth Bavarian infantry regiment to the Third battalion, Sixteenth Bavarian ' infantry: 'Severe enemy artillery fire of all calibers up to twenty-eight centimeters on company sector. Company Com-pany strength, one officer, twelve men. Beg urgently speedy relief for company. What remains of company com-pany so exhausted that in case of attack by the enemy the few to-' to-' tally exhausted men cannot fight on.' "From another company ojf the same regiment to Third battalion, Sixteenth Bavarian infantry regiment: 'Very heavy and intense enemy fire on company sector. Completely lost its fighting value. Men left so exhausted ex-hausted they can no longer be employed em-ployed in fighting if heavy artillery fire continues. Company will soon be entirely exterminated. Relief .for company urgently requested.' "From the Second battalion to the Third battalion. Sixteenth Bavarian regiment : 'Battalion has just received re-ceived orders from Lieutenant Colonel Kumme that it is placed under orders or-ders of the Third battalion, Sixteenth Bavarian regiment, as a section of the reserves. Battalion consists at present time of three officers, two non-commissioned officers and nineteen nine-teen men.' " |