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Show Hand-to-Hand Fighting in the Streets of the Village Results in the German Troops Being Finally Routed by the Australians, Who Entered En-tered It the Other Day. POSSESSION IS OF MUCH IMPORTANCE Captured Pos i t i o n s Overlook Surrounding Country and Give General Haig Domination Domina-tion of Plateau on Which German Lines Extend Eastward. LONDON, July 26, 10:40 p. m. The allies are able to congratulate themselves them-selves on, another good day's record with the capture of the important positions po-sitions of Pozieres, on the western front, and Erzingan in Armenia, while the Russian General Sakharoff, in tho fighting on the Slonevka river, captured another 4000 prisoners and five guns. The British secretary for war, David Lloyd-George, in a published statement tonight, shows the importance the Germans Ger-mans attached to 'he retention of Pozieres by quoting from a German divisional di-visional order issued on Contalmaison on July 11, as follows: "Furthermore, the conversion . of villages into strong points is of the greatest importance. Such villages ure Pozieres, Contalmaison and the two Bazeutins and Longueval. ' ' Secretary Secre-tary Lloyd-George points out that with the capture of Pozieres the lost of these villages has fallen into the allies ' hands. ' Clerical Error. He further points out that today 's German elarln of the repulse of an attack at-tack on Trones wood must be a clerical error as Trones wood has been in British Brit-ish possession since July 14. The opinion of the military critics in London is that no positions so strong as the British are now successfully holding will be found between Pozieres and Bapaumc; otherwiso, they argue, the Germans would not have risked bringing troops and guns from the Verdun sector to defend Pozieres, and it is inferred from indications in the official despatches des-patches that the British are already beginning be-ginning to establish themselves on both bides of the road from ' Pozieres to Bapaume. Dominating Position. The capture of Pozieres in the Somme river rcfrion, reported today by Field Marshal Hlr Douglas Hal, the British commander in chief Jn France, givca the British troops domination of the highest point overlooking the plateau on which the German lines extend to the eastward. Some of the most stubborn flRhtlnjf In the recent British offensive, which now hus lasted nearly a month, has occurred in the streets of this village, which the Germans fortified until it became one of the strongest points of their line. ; Kvery house had to be fought for and taken spparately and the British, after obtaining possesion of a considerable portion of the village, were subjected to severe counter attacks, which they withstood with-stood successfully for several days and then In turn again seized the initiative until the whole place fell before their onslaught. German View. The German general staff regarded tlr possession of Pozieres of such Importance that they even brought reinforcements of troops wld eh had been fighting in the Verdun sector, and these held tenaciously to part of the village until driven out or captured in the hajid-to-hand fight inK. The text of the official statement follows: fol-lows: The whole village of Pozieres in now in our bunds. "West of the village our territorial trooxs made a further ad- ! (Continued on Page Two.) POIRESIWIIELO" SOLELY B! BRITISH (Continued from Page One.) vance and captured two strong trenches and a number of prisoners, including five officers. Elsewhere on the battle front there is no change. SUDDEN ATTACK WINS POSITION FOR THE FRENCH PARIS, July 2t, 10:35 p. m. The official offi-cial communication issued by the war office of-fice tonight reads: South of the Somme. a sudden attack at-tack mnde us masters of a fortified house about 150 meters southeast of iCstrees. We took some prisoners. Kive cannon, of 103 millimeters, taken in a battery we captured Monday Mon-day south of Kstrees. are added to the material already reported as taken. On the rest of the front the dav was calm except in Champagne, where a rather violent artillery action occurred in tiie sector west of Prosnes. Belgian communication: There has been some artillery activity. |