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Show Towns of Le Transloy and Achiet-le-Petit Also Al-so Are Reported in Hands of Allies; Center Cen-ter of German Defenses De-fenses Is Fired as Teutons Teu-tons Leave. FRENCH ADVANCE NORTH OF AVRE Under Vigorous Pressure Pres-sure Central Powers' Troops Are Forced Back North and South of Somme and in the Noyon Salient. LONDON, March 17, 11:15 p. m. The British troops have made another extensive advance, entering German positions po-sitions on a front of about sixteen miles, accordiug to the official report from British headquarters in f'raoee tonight. This is in addition to the frout captured cap-tured uorth of the river. On tho north the gain reached from Bapaumo to Monchy-au-Bois and included the villages vil-lages of Le Transloy, Achiet-le-Grand, Achiet-le-Petit, Bucquoy and others. Ou the south the gain included various villages vil-lages from La Maisonette (south of Po-ronte) Po-ronte) to Fresnes. The statement reads; Bapaume has beon captured hy our troops after stiff fight.iug with the German guard. The town had been systematically pillaged by the enemy. All private houses and pub-lie pub-lie .buildings alike have been destroyed de-stroyed and everything of value carried off or burned. Fresnes Is Captured. Our advance has proceeded rapidly rap-idly during the day on both bank of the Somme. South of the river we have entered the enemy's position posi-tion on a front of about sixteen miles and occupied the villages of Fresnes, Horgny, Villcru Carbonelle, Barleux, Eterpigny and La Maisou-otte. Maisou-otte. North of the river, in addition to Bapaume, we are in possession of the villages of Le Transloy, Bien-villers, Bien-villers, Bihucourt, Achiet-le-Grand, Achiet-le-Petit, Ahlaiii.-cvelle, Bucquoy Buc-quoy and Essurts. We also hold Quesnoy farm, l.jOO yards northeast of the last named village, and have gained the western and northwestern northwest-ern defenses of Moncby-au-Bois. Raids Near Arras. V"e carried out a successful raid this morning east and northeast of Arras. The enemy's support line was reached and two machine guns and a number of prisoners were captured. cap-tured. A hostile raiding party was driven off during the night northeast north-east of Vennelles. An encounter took place yesterday yester-day between a patrol of eight of our airplanes and sixteen enemy machines, with the result that in twenty minutes' iighting the hostile hos-tile formation was broken up. Two German airplanes were destroyed and two others driven down uam-maged. uam-maged. All our machines returned. Bapaume, the center of the German defenses ou the Aucre river frout. fell into British hands this morning. Simultaneously Simul-taneously Achiet-lc-l'etit, to the northwest north-west of Bapaume, and Le Transloy, a town almost tho same distance to the southwest, were, according to press dispatches dis-patches from army headquarters, entered by British troops. Bapaume was set on fire by the Germans Ger-mans befon1 their departure, which only occurred after stiff fighting. The fall of Bapaume had been anticipated for (Continued on Page Twenty-two.) J ALLIES ADVANCE 01 " MLEFHT (Continued from Page One.) some time and the capture of Achiet-le-Petit and Lo Transloy were looked upon as a necessary consequence of that event. Follow Up Advantage. The British public, however, hardly-had hardly-had hoped for such a quick result of tho continued British pressure following tho German retirement, as it was believed the Germans would make stubborn resistance re-sistance on Bapaume ridge so as to enable en-able them to retire from the Arras salient, sa-lient, which now becomes more pronounced pro-nounced than ever. Apparently the British, following up the advantage gained in the recent operations, op-erations, prevented this being done, and as a result a German retreat of much larger scale is expected by military writers. writ-ers. . Details of the operations, with the number of prisoners and the amount of booty taken anxiously are awaited. Work of Infantry. t This will dispose of the question whether the Germans are making a "strategic retirement" or, as the British Brit-ish writers contend, they are being driven driv-en from their positions by British gunfire gun-fire and the never-ending pressure of the infantry. It is believed here the new advance of the British brings the Germans on the western front almost to the edge of disaster, dis-aster, for the retirements from, tho Arras salient and from the positions south of Peronne with the British in control of so many of the main roads will be far from an easy operation. The forces of Emperor "William apparently ap-parently have been compelled to give up positions that they have occupied for more than two years, because of the terrific bombardments, to which they have been subjected. The British Brit-ish forward movement on the Somme front began February 25, when Petit Mirauniout along the Ancre, was occupied, occu-pied, and the French began pressing forward from the Andechy-Lassigny line on March 12. In the early operations, one by one, small villages were evacuated bv the Germans, whose withdrawal was slowly and watchfully followed by the British, Brit-ish, consolidation of the new positions and preparations for a further forward movement being most carefully made. In the last few days, both the retreat and advance respectively have been considerably accelerated. The Germans evacuated more than a score of villages in tho Somme area before retreating to the Bapaume line and. they now have given up that town and villages to the north and south of it from Essarts to Le Transloy. From Petit Miraumont eastward to Bapaume is six miles, and from Gom-mecourt, Gom-mecourt, north of tho Ancre, eastward to Ablainesville is four and one half miles. i The Germans also have given up villages vil-lages south of tiie Sommo and south of Peronne, which now is invented from three sides. There has been little activity ac-tivity of moment south of the Somme since" the line there was taken over by the British. In the capture of Eter-pigny Eter-pigny they now have reached the Somme canal and the railroad paralleling parallel-ing it, both of which were important transportation lines for Peronne. La Maisonette, Presnes and Barleux have been scenes of desperate righting right-ing since thc beginning of the Franco-British Franco-British offensive on tho Somme front July 1 of last year, as they were defenses de-fenses for the canal and the railroad. From Fresnes, the southern extremity extrem-ity of the British advance, to Boye, en-I en-I tered by the French, is ten miles. The i French success in the region of Las- signy is the first important gain made j into the German positions between Chaulnes and Soissons in two years. |
