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Show Attack Along Three-mile Three-mile Front East of the Meuse and Carry Some Works; Paris Declares Enemy Was Driven ! Out by Counter-attacks. RUSSIANS PRESS THEIR FOES BACK Report in Rome Has It That Teutons Have Abandoned Vladimir- J Volynski and Kovel ; ! One Austrian Army in Great Peril, i (Social CiMc tiy AminsTiient ultti London Dally ! Ti'lfgruph anj Iu(er:iailoiial News Service.) j LONDON, Aug. 1. While the armies j in Picardy today enjoyed a temporary j respite, after their tremendous efforts ; of last month, the Germans renewed , their furious attacks against Verdun. Throughout the day, division after division was sent forwaid in violent assaults against the French defenses northeast of the fortress. The offensive i was delivered on a front of threo aud ! a half miles, extending from west of Thiaumont to the district of Vaux. The French war office tonight claims the uniform defeat of every effort, and in addition declares that the French were able themselves to make progress 1 to the south of the powerful Thiau- ; mont wood. 1 The Germans at midnight opened a strong bombardment along almost the entire front northeast of Verdun. At dawn the crown prince sent forward his soldiers in the first attack. This was delivered west and south of Thiaumont Thiau-mont wood, and, according to the French war office, collapsed before the French shrapnel and machine gun fire. Throughout the forenoon the Germans Ger-mans continued their attacks in this sector, and, according to Paris, suffered severe losses without having any gains to show. Germans Driven Out. In the afternoon they diverted their attention at-tention to the other end of the front and felt out the French lines there. There, just before sundown, after a furious bombardment, bom-bardment, the greatest attack of the day was delivered on a short front comprising the Chenois and Chapltre woods and extending ex-tending Into the Vaux sector. . The assault as-sault carried the Teutons forward Into advanced sections of the Chenois defenses, but failed elsewhere. And before the conquered ground could be organized for defense General Nivelle sent his troops in a great counter attack. Every inch of the ground was regained, he notified the war office tonight. Month of Fierce Fighting. On the Somme front both sides were content to rest today after a month of the most terrible lighting the world has ever seen. This afternoon, for the first time, intimation beyran to leak from the rival war offices of the tremendous destruction de-struction of the conflict. All previous estimates of the loss of. life shran.'c into insignificance before these figures. An official estimate made in Paris sets the Gorman losses for the first two weeks of the Franco-British offensive on the Sommo at 20.000 men a day, a total of 280,000 men in a fortnight. The losses since have also been serious. Teutons Reckon Allied Loss. The Berlin grand headquarters sets .150,000 men as a "cautious estimate" of the allied casualties, against which the French and British can show a gain of "only two and a half miles on an eighteen-mile front." Berlin declares that the German line has not been shaken at any point, and that even the British will not claim that It has after their experience of losing 230,000 men in less than a month. "The French h:id to do the biggest part of the job." says the Berlin statement, "and, taking into consideration their superior su-perior iightine skill, their losses cannot be less than 120.000." "As the result of tho slow progress made by the allied offensive," concludes the statement, "we have had time to construct con-struct new fort i Heat ions behind our actual lines identical to those lost." In order to Illustrate the facts mentioned, men-tioned, it is stated that in the first month of the fighting at Verdun the Germans gained double the amount of territory, while t he German casualties wro no larger than the Germans could afford. There was sharp lighting during the night on the British front in PU:ardy, where Berlin claims to have driven in a (Continued on Page Two.) VBffl OFFENSIVE (Continued from Page One.) small salient which jutted west of the Foureaux woods. General Haig reports the repulse of a Teuton assault north of Bazentin le Petit. A small operation of a patrol detachment, during which the French captured a trench in the Kstrees sector, south of the Somme, was the only infantry action today. to-day. The artillery fire Is undiminished, however, and renewed activity Is expected at anv minute. Almost unbearable heat is adding to the hardships of the troops. The second anniversary of Germany's declaration of war on Russia finds the relative positions of the belligerents very different froiu those of the first anniversary. anniver-sary. The entente allies now are pursuing pur-suing a successful offensive on all fronts and the central powers are virtually everywhere on the defensive. Kaiser Proclaims Triumphs. Emperor William celebrated the occasion by the issue of proclamations to his army and navy and people, which breathed a spirit of continued confidence in ultimate ulti-mate victory for Germany. The operations on the eastern front continue to surpass those in the west In dramatic Interest. The military critics express great admiration for the Russian tactics, one of the Important objects of which, In their opinion, has been to iso-late iso-late the Austrians from the German armies on the Russian front. This, it , how is claimed, has been virtually ac- complished .by the Russians, who have driven a wedge into the Austro-German positions along the front of Kovel-Vladi-mir- Volynski. The view here is that if the Germans have thus accepted severance from the Austrians, the most decisive result of the whole of General Brussiloff's strategy will have been obtained, it being argued by the military observers that without German Ger-man support the Austrian armies will become be-come demoralized and collapse. One Army Doomed. The critics say that the Austrian forces between the Lipa and Dniester rivers are doomed. There has been no confirmation of the report received in Rome that Kovel and Vladimir-Volynski 'have been evacuated, evacu-ated, but Rome is usually well-informed on Russian news. A correspondent with the Russian forces has reported that the roads toward Kovel "are black with the retreating enemy." Exactlv where General Brussiloff's next blow will fall is not known. The Russians are virtually within the same distance of both Kovel and Vladimir-Volynski, but also are pressing closer toward Lemberg. Russians Make Big Claims. A mass of reports and rumors poured In todav from Russian sources, all heralding her-alding the fall of Kovel, some announcing the evacuation of Lemberg, and others predicting a Teuton retreat on the whole front of attack within the next few days. A Copenhagen dispatch quoted the Vienna Neue Freie Presse as saying many inhabitants inhabi-tants of. the Galician capital are fleeing and goods are being removed from the city In anticipation of its capture. A dispatch received via Rome went so far as to say the Austro-German commanders did not intend to defend Kovel or the Galician cities now menaced. In direct contrast with these reports are the official statements issued tonight at Petrograd and Vienna. The Russian war office reports a rush attack by general gen-eral infantry on the Muscovite forces occupying oc-cupying the western bank of the Hlolihod river, northwest of Kovel. It asserts that the assault was repulsed, but adds that "the battle is proceeding." This indicates indi-cates a great Teuton counter offensive, aimed at outflanking the Russian Kovel ! |