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Show 1 HE Field Marshal Haig Shifts Attacks to South and Begins Battle in St. Quentin Region; Details Lacking, but Satisfactory Progress Is Reported. BELIEVE GERMANS SEEKING VERDUN Thinning of Teuton Lines on Eastern Front Thought to Foretell Revived Ambition of Crown Prince to Take Big Fortress. LONDON, Nov. 20. Shifting his offensive offen-sive to the south, Field Marshal Haig has delivered a series of attacks against the Germans in the region between St. ' .Quentin and the river Scarpe in France, '"territory on which there has heen little fighting since the spring offensive, when ; i'btable gains from Arras to Peronne were made. Details of the new offensive are not yet at hand, but the British official communication com-munication says that the strike had satisfactory sat-isfactory results and that a number or prisoners and a considerable quantity of " materials have been gained on the roads leading from Bapaume and Peronne toward to-ward the important railroad junction of Cambrai. Mysterious hints from Germany of a larger scalo thinning of the eastern front, coincident with a sharp Teuton blow at Verdun and terrific German cannonading can-nonading on that front, revived the theory today that the crown prince has not abandoned his ambition to redeem himself by taking the big fortress. His forces attacked the French today, after violent artillery preparation, north of Caurieres, on the right bank of the Ieusn, storming forward on a front of one kilometer (five-eighths of a mile). The French guns flattened the onslaught considerably, but the attackers could penetrate email lines only on a small front. A counter-thrust was launched immediately and the greater part of the Jmaded positions were cleared. MARSHAL HAIG REPORTS OPENING OF NEW OFFENSIVE E-AN DON, Nov. 2". The report from Flold Marshal i I aip's headquarters in iVlonders tonight reads: Soon after daybreak this morning wo carried out a series of operations I p t ween St. Quent in and the Scarpe. These operations have been conducted with satisfactory results. A considers consid-ers hlo quantity of material and a number of prisoners have been taken, but. no estimate can yet be given. The weather has become stormy and we l, rendering: action bv our aircraft very difficult. The- hostile artillery lias been active at a number num-ber of points on the Ypres battle front, particularly in the neighborhood neighbor-hood of Zonnebeke and passe ho n-daole. n-daole. Germans Report Activity. BttRUN. via Iondon, Nov. HO. The supplementary report from general headquarters head-quarters tonight says: "There was lively artlllerv activity at roelcapefle and Passvhcndaelo (Flanders. (Flan-ders. In the region between the roads leading: from Bapaiimo and Peronne toward to-ward Cnmbrai, the British attacked with strong forces and gained ground. Our counter-measures are in full swing." GERMAN ATTACK IN VERDUN SECTOR IS UNSUCCESSFUL PARIS. Nov. Ln. The Germans made an attack last night on a front of one kilometer kilo-meter in the Verdun sector north of Caurieres Cau-rieres wood. They succeeded in penetrating penetrat-ing the French positions over a small extent ex-tent of t his front, says today's official Ma to men t, but subsequently expelled for the most part. The statement follows: Xoi-th of St. Quentin we easily repulsed re-pulsed a raid in the region of Kavrt. In the Gbampaune (hero was rat her lieavy artillery fighting in the sector 3f Hut to lMimeRnil. On the right bank of the Mouse ! Verdun sector"! after an intense bombardment of the front between Bi'zzonvaux and Chainno wood, the Germans attacked our positions north of Caurieres wood over an extent of about one kilometer. The attack was .brokrn by our fire and the ijermnns were not able to approach our advanced ad-vanced Hues except over . very small sp;u ittiomy troops which succeeded Continued on Page Four. OFFENSIVE IS BEGUN BY ALLIES IN FRANCE (Continued from Page One.) in gaining a footing were ejected for ttte greater part by an immediate counter attack. Jn Lorraine a n enemy raid on our positions south of Norroy was without with-out success. Elsewhere the night was ca'm. INCREASE IS SEEN IN CASUALTIES OF BRITISH ARMIES LONDON. Nov. 20. British casualties reported in the week ending today reached, a total of o2,22T. They were divided as follows: Killed or died of wounds: Officers, 9ri; men. 6160. Wounded or missing: Officers, 923; men, 1M.S4S. The British casualty lists have been Increasing In-creasing recently, probably in consequence of tlie bitter fighting in ' Flanders. Last week they were 2fj, 065 and in the preceding preced-ing week 21,891, ROCHESTER MISSING LIFEBOAT REACHES THE IRISH COAST : ij LONDON, Nov. 20. The missing boat from the American steamship Rochester, whim was sent to the bottom by a German Ger-man submarine November 2, lias just landed at a port in Ireland, the British admiralty announced today. The boat contained five men, the only survivors i from the original boat's crew of twelve. The admiralty announcement says the j Rochester was . toryedoed without warn- ing by a German submarine, being struck abreast the No. 3 hatch, and that the explosion destroyed a bbat. demolished the wireless room and disabled the main engine. The second assistant engineer was killed and the ship went down in five minutes. The boat which has now reached Ireland Ire-land originally contained twelve men. It was commanded by the first officer. Two men died of exposure and one became insane and jumped overboard. Just before be-fore the boat reached the coast' four others died. Of the remaining five only the first officer was able to walk. The hands and feet of the four others were badly swollen and Immediate medical medi-cal treatment was necessary, GERMANY SENDING MASSES OF TROOPS FROM RUSS BORDER COPENHA-GEN, Nov. 20. Reports from several sources in Germany bear out the assumption that, taking advantage of the situation in Russia, the German government govern-ment is making heavy transfers of troops from the Russian front. Only part of them appear to he going to Italy, where the front is too narrow to permit of the use nf great masses, and a blow hv Won Hindenbtirg at some other, point, in the way of a diversion, may perhaps be expected. ex-pected. Some troops arc reported to have bfen moved to the western front, but this Is not necessarily significant, ns Field Marshal Mar-shal Halg's pounding tactics necessitate frequent reliefs for exhausted German divisions. di-visions. German newspapers discuss with suspicious sus-picious frankness and avidity the prospect pros-pect . of an offensive on the Saloniki front, but have never a word to say about the obvious chance of a smashing blow at Rumania In" an effort to end the resistance re-sistance of tliat nation. As for Italy, if the A nstrians and Germans find the reinforced re-inforced Italian army tco hard a nut to attempt to crack, the central powers can easily and quickly change to the defensive on a' strong line for the purpose of seeking seek-ing in force ,-i decision on some other se-te-ted fmnt with the bulk of their strategic reserve. |
