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Show BRITISH VJiN S GREAT VICTORY I ' Huns Lose Wide Stretches of Ground and Thou-j Thou-j sands of Prisoners. i Reinforcements Fail to Stop Forces Under Raw-linson Raw-linson and Byng. WITH THE BRITISH ARMY IN FRANCE, Aug. 23, 3:40 p. m. (By the i Associated Press.) Victorious on a battle ; front of ' twenty-three- miles, extending from the Coieul river on the north across j the Ancre and Somme rivers almost to ! Lihons, the Third and Fourth British armies, under Generals Byng and Raw-linson,. Raw-linson,. at midafternoon were vigorously following up their successes of today, which apparently has been one of the most disastrous days ever experienced by the Germans. The enemy lost wide stretches of ground, numerous towns, thousands of men made prisoner and large quantities of materials and guns. He also again has had heavy casualties, j Crown Prince v Rupprecht of Bavaria, the German commander, has thrown his men in before the advancing British I armies In an effort to stave off the inevitable, in-evitable, but only to have them mowed j down again and again by storms of metal I which poured from the British guns. One entire enemy battalion was annihilated during the fighting. Dead Hurvi Everywhere. " ' Dead Germans in great .numbers are scattered . everywhere over the battlefield battle-field As an- example, 400 enemy dead were observed this morning on one small piece of ground over which the battle had swept. With all this fierce fighting, and notwithstanding not-withstanding the fact that the British at many places have fought over open ground against an enemy protected in "pot holes" and strong points of other kinds, the British losses everywhere seem to have been extraordinarily light. This probably is due to the confusion the Germans find reigning behind their lines, as they are fighting a losing battle, which for them hourly grows more disastrous dis-astrous Crown Prince Rupprecht today had strengthened his line at many places, but this, instead of stopping the British, simply meant that the Germans suffered bigger losses. Battle Front Widened. During the night and this morning the front upon which the battle was being fought yesterday was widened appreciably, apprecia-bly, both to the north and the south, while the ground in the middle, between Albert and Beaucourt-sur-Ancre, which) . heretofore had been fairly quiet, sud-I sud-I denly was drawn into the whirl. i From the northern edge of the battlefield battle-field to the south the situation at last reports seemed to be as follows: New attacks from the river Cojeul and south carried the British across the Albert-Arras Albert-Arras railroad embankment. The British Brit-ish apparently hold Boiry-Becquerelle and Boyelles and have passed beyond the Arras-Bapaume road. , The troops just to the south, who for two days had been fighting for, and afterward af-terward from, the embankment, stormed forward and reached Hamelincourt, and are pushing on toward Ervillers, St. Leger and Crolselles. Airplanes reported that British tanks had crossed the road between be-tween Ervillers and St. Leger, -while some infantry was reported to be less than a thousand yards west of Ervillers some hours ago. At about that time an airplane reported the Germans had disappeared dis-appeared from their positions northwest of St. Leger and between that town and Hamelincourt, and the fighting British found time to cheer heartily. Decide to Get Out. Apparently the Germans, rather than suffer more here, where they have met with some of their heaviest losses, decided de-cided to get out. This locality was one of the places where the Germans had doubled their strength. The fighting to the south of "this region re-gion becran in the night, when strong Prit ish forces assailed Gom'ecourt just a few minutes before the G'Trr.r.ns had anticipate.! launching an attack. Gomie-co Gomie-co u r t was British at daylight. As it happened, the British upet all the enemy en-emy plans and, after killing many Ger-j Ger-j mans and capturing 500 In the town ef I Gomiecourt alone, they went on. At J last reports they were pushing ahead ; steadily. I Gomiecourt. by reason of its termor.. I a; parer.:ly was conM ?.--r'1 ti- pivot nT a t-.:rn;ng moveni-nt. f . -r. ono havir.c taken it. the Br::isa ser.t troops swing- (Coutinued on Pae Three.) BRITISH WIN GREAT VICTORY OVER Ml (Continued from Page One.) ing down south In the direction of Bapaume. The Germans on this position posi-tion of the battle front were badly disorganized. dis-organized. There were Germans all over the place, but they seemed to have no idea of counter-attacks. ?ome apparently did not even know exactly where they were. The fighting south of Gomiecourt today to-day was especially severe. Incidentally this movement cut in around the rear of Achiet-le-Grand. At the same time the British here, having launched another frontal attack on the enemy's stronghold, were again in, hard fighting. While the battle was raging here British planes bombed or used machine guns. Several direct nits were made on a building at the rear of which were a number of touring cars. Apparently it was a German headquarters. head-quarters. South of Achiet-le-Grand the British did not start today's operations so early. The New Zealanders here stopped work to" let a German counter-attack develop. They "played dead" until the infantry-was infantry-was almost on top of them. Then they put clown a heavy machine-gun barrage just at the rear of the Germans, who surrendered sur-rendered in a body, rather than be killed in their tracks. This happened just north of Miraumont.. Many of the prisoners were non-commissioned officers. All appeared ap-peared gkid they were taken. When asked about the Austrians the prisoners expressed ex-pressed the greatest contempt for their allies as soldiers, saying they were no good whatever. Cross Ancre River. Slightly to the south the British have crossed the Ancre river and started in the generaj direction of Courcellette. Already Al-ready they are reported to be southeast of Grandcourt. This move menaces from the rear tho German stronghold at Thiepval. which is an old fortress. At Albert the British pushed forward toward Tara hi'l, at the back of that town. An airplane report at about noon said the British troops held the entire position. About the same time German shells started breaking on Tara. while British shrapnel could be seen bursting some distance on the othr side of it, showing where the enemy nad been driven. Considerable numbers of prisoners prison-ers were taken in this locality. The British troops seem to be progressing progress-ing well up the road from Albert to Bapaume. Ba-paume. Welsh troops are participating in the fighting in this neighborhood. In British Hands. South of Albert, Meaulte appears to be in British hands, having been captured early in the day. Thence the line extends ex-tends southeasterly with a break where tho Germans last evening ma naged to lake Happv Va ley, just north wt-st cf Bray, by throwing in fresh troop of the Twenty-fifth division, which apparently were brought tip for this purpose. The Gtrmans suffered srver.-Iy here during the first attack. The fighting was J very heavy. Since then the Germans have been constantly heavily fired upon. Happy Valley truly is a shambles. Its name belies it. South of the Somme the Australians ' were most successful in the part they played in today's battle. They easily attained at-tained all their objectives and apparently hold Chuignolles, Chuignes and Herle-ville Herle-ville and are pushing eastward of these villages a little distance to make sure oi ! holding them. In this region thirty-three German officers of-ficers and l")0u men of other ranks were made prisoner. Eleven of t he captured officers were from one regiment. Anzacs Hammer Through. The Germans offered heavy r-.i?( ar.ee at Chuignolles. but, with the assistant-; of tanks, the Aus ra linns ha mm.-: eu 1 through the enemy and swept un. leavim; the town and its environs filled w.th d-.ad Germans. ! On the ridge south of this town there , also was fierce f igh tin?, which a-mot 'reached the hand-to-hand singe betoi e j the Australians made it clear to the Gur-I Gur-I mans that they were nut to be stopped ' and shoved over the ridire and onward. I Just now larcre numbers of gjns art-roaring art-roaring away all airing fhe i:ne. At some places thr-y are ste.tdi;y h-immcring, at others rolling up into ir:r';i:.se drumfire, drum-fire, w-liiMg where the fihtin-' is co.iig i on. The rman she Is sc-ni in 1 r. rorn-1 rorn-1 ing in from long uisi ar.rrs. Evident :y tht'ir guns havf been mnved icick ir 1 sa f e t y . T 'n e G e r rn an a r t ; 1 i y n , f a ;,i .p.i r -; eiuiy hnv.; v.n the tmnts: u: i:i : the ability cf th-.tr rn'rirad-'S in t'r.- i:.i".in-! i:.i".in-! try to w.ird off the bi'v.s bt-::.,- n iivtT'.'i j against th-m. I All day lone strean s nf v.-r:r t. d. ; -ri r, -' ripally Gerrv a ;.p w ?', as irr-'i.t numbers of enemy pr.SM:,,-r-', wc-:e i":-'i:.ir u.-.'.T'!.-the rear. T'-" '. iv w.ts --. .-r t n "-trday "-trday and tr. ':r:r:h so;-S;"r r--fn-'s.iU'd by It w.-ts si.'ryiy r '.- : -.v. i.i.t the air wis fu.l of T.t - "i - ,v number of GerTr.nn ri.i : -s sr.-t d" ov.--r tl-. brittle f--r.t nu-rntr 1 '. .y, fall bringing a cbetrr irvi.i ti.u i.: ; : |