Salt Lake Tribune | 1917-07-21 | Page 3 | French Success of July 17 Described

FRENCH SUCCESS OP JULY 17 DESCRIBED j Correspondent Tells Story ; of Recapture of Lost Position. OTTAWA, July 20. "It was a brilliant bril-liant example of a perfectly staged infantry in-fantry operation in which every possibility possi-bility was provided for,'' says the correspondent cor-respondent of Center's, limited, at the French front, in a dispatch received here describing the French success of July 17, between hill 304 and Avocourt wood, on the riht bank of the Meuse. "Its success was due," the dispatch continues, "not only to the pieticulous preparation, but to exact knowledge of the positipn and value of every piece in the enemy's game. The French objective objec-tive was the recovery of the flat-topped saddle between hill 203 and the heights of Avocourt wood, which was captured by the Germans on June 28 alter a short hurricane of bombardment, in which 500 guns were suddenly turned on a mile and a half of French trenches. "As usuel, the value of Col. De Pommeriu, as tho saddle is called, lies in the fact that it enables its possessors to overlook the enemy 's position below. The Germans had not only a view over French grounds in the rear which they had not before, but they were able to threaten the rear of the French, on hill 30-L "The French took their time over their revenge. They kept Col. De Pommeriu and the German communications communica-tions under a heavy and minutely accurate accu-rate bombardment, under which the Ger-, man battalions had melted away when it was judged that the position was ripe for attack. "The operation, however, was three times postponed because the weather was unfavorable for artillery, with the result that the German commander, thinking that the attack was not coming at all and that th, French were merely trying to hammer 'him out of his posi tion with artillery, judged the moment 1 opportune- to relieve the exhausted troops holding this sector, which had : lost more than the number of their re- j inforcernents under the bombardment. j "Prisoners of all three German di- I visions have given graphic accounts of the state of confusion into which they were thrown by the sudden, lightninglike lightning-like dash of the French infantry. No resistance was made. Every officer and man of the French assaulting troops had been carefully rehearsed in the part iie was to play. They advanced with a dash that carried them over the crest in a few seconds, and thev had reached the German third trench line before its occupants realized that the first line was carried. "The German trenches and works were smashed to pieces by the bombardment, bombard-ment, and there was practically nothing to check the rush of the French, who passed their objective, which was their old trench line, on the crest, without I pause, establishing themselves 300 yards down the northern slope on ground which was German before June 2S."