OCR Text |
Show DESPERATE EFFORTS MADE BY GERMANS TO REACH AMIENS TTTTTT THE FREXCH ARMY IX PP.AXCE, Monday. April 1. (By Thp Associated As-sociated Press. 1 The Germans continued their desperate efforts today to open r road toward Amiens, their objective since the starting of the battle, but they made little, if any. progress. In fact, the entente en-tente allied troops were able to recapture the town of If ang;ard-en-Santerre. Most of the enemy forces were hurled. In the course of the duy, on the British, the French lines being more or le.s quiet. The iirst German guard division yes-terdav yes-terdav suffered a most severe beating at Grivisnes. At 11:20 o'clock in the morning; morn-ing; the guards attacke-1. wdth the greatest great-est fury. After hours of the closest lv-rht-ing they succeeded in getting a iCK'tin? in the village. Tho hours later the guards were ejected pe Iniell by a magnificent counter-attack at the point of the bayonet. bayo-net. This was not th end. however; the Germans came back again, time after time, preceded by a, heavy artillery barrage. bar-rage. In the grounds of the Grivesr.es castle the Frenchmen went to meet them and fought them back with bayonets and rifle butts, makms- them ret res t in disorder, dis-order, under a ijriKir.sr fire from automatic rifles, mounted on armored motor cars. Once more lids morning tne guards, not s.itisried with their defeat yesterday, returned re-turned to t lie assault, but the attack was in vain and the er.emy bad to seek shelter shel-ter " in his positions, leaving; the French the masters o: the situation. In their grcht race to attain the communications com-munications connecting; the norih and south at Amiens the Germans had the advantage cf knowing exactly where they were going, and when the British and French troops retired before the immense volume of Gei man tro ps, the enemy again was favorably placed for rushing reinforcements from one part of the line to another, owing to the fact that he occupied the interior line of a semicircle in wjuVh the bauie was beir.sr fou - lit. In the first few days of lighting the Germans naturally were able to pirk up many groups of prisoners which had become be-come isolated from tht :rain bodies during dur-ing the receding movement, but recently their haul uf captives has been comparatively compara-tively small. The French did remarkable feats in connection wdth the transportation of troops, when ca'Jed upon to support their British a lies in holding the southern part , of the line in the first stage of the battle. One army corps Came from a long .distance, .dis-tance, to be thrown immediately into the fighting, as the men -debark e 1 from motor , lorries wth their packs. This same corps i now has been in the fighting lines ten davs, without relief, and has requested permission to remain there, although it j has borne i great part in barrim; the route towaid Paris through the valley o: the O-ie. Other Fvncb rorps have entered the struggle sir: e, but none has earned a ' rea: cr amount of pruUe than tir.s tirst , rc;i!:orceuient. j The iese:ver. of the entente allies still are irtui:ly Intact. |