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Show BERLIN ADMITS FRENCH CAPTURE GERMAN TRENCHES BERLIN. May 23. by wireless to Say-vine. Say-vine. Announcement was made by the war office today that in tne fighting north of Verdun the. French have taken some first line positions of the Germans, but that Fort Douaumont remains firmly in German hands. The statement given out by army headquarters head-quarters today says: Western front: Preparations by the 1-dlish to make a counter-attack bVuthwest of Givenchy-en-Gohelle were observed. Small advances by the British in the Rociincourt district dis-trict were repulsed. In the Meuse district (Verdun front) the fighting was especially heavy, on account of the enemy's counterattacks. counter-attacks. West of tho river the Germans Ger-mans captured a French blockhouse south of Camard forest. Hostile attacks at-tacks east of hill 204 and on the -southern slope of Dead Man hill resulted re-sulted in failure. East of the Meuse there were violent vio-lent artillerv engagements on the front south of Thiaumont farm as far as the Caillette wood. The French, after a strong artillery preparation, entered the foremost German position, but were repulsed on the flanks of the sector bv German counter-attacks. South of "the village and south of the former fort of Douaumont, the engagement en-gagement is not yet finished. Fort Douaumont remained firmly in German Ger-man hands. Northwest of Fort Vaux we recaptured recap-tured a sap which had been occupied temporarily by the enemy. The first and second lines of the French on Combres height were destroyed de-stroyed by our mines over a considerable consider-able distance. , it On the heights of the Meuse southeast south-east of Verdun, near Vaux les Pala-meux Pala-meux and Seucey, the enemy's attacks, at-tacks, for the most part, broke down before our curtain of fire. Small detachments de-tachments which entered our trenches were annihilated. I An enemy aeroplane was shot down west of Vailly. |