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Show l Tide of War Turns and American Troops, Side by Side With the French, Gain New Victories. GERMANS ARE NOW ON DEFENSIVE EVERYWHERE WITH THE AMERICAN ARMY BETWEEN THE AISNE AND THE MARNE, July 19. (By Associated Press.) The Franco-American Franco-American troops made an advance late this afternoon on the Sois-sons-Chateau Thierry front averaging about two kilometers (about a mile and a quarter). Vicious German machine gun fire southwest south-west of Soissons hampered the advance for only a short period. In the same section the Germans attempted to use tanks against the Americans, but a hot fire soon compelled the tanks to retreat. The advance began with a barrage opening at 5:30 o'clock. Tanks were sent in by the allies to assist the infantry and machine gunners, and the Germans endeavored to stem the tide with a heavy cVifiil firs SnnthwpKt. nf Soissons the Germans repeatedly attempt- ed to reach the allies' big guns. The German firing continued until long after dark, but the French and American guns responded in kind, and gave full protection to the allied forces as they advanced along the line. Several towns were captured. Heavy reinforcements were rushed up from the north by the German command in a desperate effort to head off the hard-fighting allies, whose rapid advance would, if continued, sever the German lines of communication. There are still strong German forces south of the Marne. PARIS, July 19. The Franco-American offensive between the Aisne and the Marne has yielded thus far 17,000 prisoners and more than 360 guns, captured by the allies, according to the war office announcement tonight. t All day the battle raged violently. The French have held then-positions then-positions on the plateaux southwest of Soissons and have made important im-portant advances at various points. The statement says: The battle begun yesterday between the Aisne and the Marne continued all day with extreme violence, the enemy reacting re-acting along the whole line with large reserves in an attempt to stay our progress. Despite his efforts we continued our advance over the greater part of the front. On the" left we maintained the plateaux southwest of Soissons Sois-sons and in the region of Chaudun. In the center our advance ad-vance exceeded three kilometers at certain points along the line of Vaux-Castile, Villers-Helon and Noroy-sur-Ourcq. On the right our troops occupied, after bitter fighting, the plateau northwest of Monnes and the height north of Courchamps and advanced beyond Torcy. The number of prisoners counted up to the present exceed ex-ceed 17,000, including two colonels with their chiefs of staff. We have captured more than 360 cannon, including one bat- iery 01 -tv s. Aviation: Yesterday our airmen, in collaboration with British squadrons, continued their work along the whole bat-tlefront. bat-tlefront. Twenty German machines were brought down or put out of commission by our pilots and two captive balloons were burned. The British airmen destroyed seven German machines. Our bombing groups continued their expeditions against the crossings of the Marne. A footbridge west of Ecuil was bombed and demolished. Cantonments and troop concentrations concentra-tions at Oulchy-le-Chateau, in the Vaux.buin ravine, at Fcre-en-Tardenois and in the region of Ouilly were attacked with machine guns or bombs, the troops being dispersed. Stations in the rear areas were sprinkled with projectiles. Fires broke out in the stations at Amie Fontaine and Fismcs. Hoavy explosions were observed at Pontavert. Twenty-two tons of bombs were also utilized in the day and twenty-one on the following night. British squadrons dropped two tons and a half of explosives ex-plosives with excellent results. Belgian communication: Our artillery shelled the enemy's en-emy's communications between Houtholst forest and Staden. (Continued on Page Nine.) j. 17,000 HUNS CAPTURED WITH MANY CANNONS (Continued from Page One.) Bomb fighting took place near Dixmude. There were patrol encounters east of Nieuport, and an enemy reconnoitering party endeavoring to occupy one of our posts north of Nieuport Nieu-port was repulsed. Eastern theater, 18th: Patrol encounters took place in Struma, where the Greek troops captured Bulgarian prisoners. Both' artilleries were active on the Struma in the region of Doiran and west of the Vardar. In Albania we are organizing organiz-ing the ground gained. LONDON, July 19-. Scottish troops captured the village of Meteren, together with more than 300 prisoners and a number of machine guns, in an operation in the Bailleul sector this morning, according ac-cording to the official report from Field Marshal Haig's headquarters headquar-ters in France tonight. - j Australian troops advanced to a short distance south of Meteren and took eighty prisoners and ten machine guns. J The text of the statement reads: By a successful minor operation carried out by us this morning in the Bailleul sector, Scottish troops captured the village of Meteren, gaining all their objectives and taking over 300 prisoners, with a number of machine guns. Under cover of this operation, Australian troops pushed their line forward a short distance south of Meteren-and captured cap-tured over eighty prisoners and ten machine guns. We also secured a few prisoners during the day in raids and patrol encounters in the Nieppe forest sector. BERLIN, via London, July 19. A fresh attempt by the French to drive a wedge through the German lines between the Aisne and the Marne was repulsed with heavy losses to the attacking forces, according to the statement issued by general headquarters this evening. eve-ning. The statem'ent reads: "On the battlefield between the Aisne and the Marne a fresh attempt by the French to break through our line failed with heavy losses to the enemy," GERMANS ADMIT SURPRISE AND ADVANCE OF ALLIES BERLIN, via London, 'July 19. Admission Ad-mission is made in the German official communication issued today that the allied al-lied troops through a surprise counter-offensive counter-offensive on Thurs'day broke into the German front infantry and artillery lines at isolated points between the Aisne and the Marne and forced back the German line. Later a strengthening strengthen-ing of the German positions prevented the allies from breaking through, the statement claims. The text of the communication follows: fol-lows: The battle has blazed up again betwoen the Aisne and the Marne. There the French have begun their long-expected counter-offensive. Ky the employment of extremely strong squa.drons of tanks they succeeded at first in penetrating by surprise into our front infantry and artillery artil-lery lines at isolated points and in pressing back our lilies. Afterwards, our line divisions, together with reserves which had .been held in readiness, frustrated the enemy from breaking through. Toward mid-day French attacks on the line southwest from Soissons Sois-sons to Neuilly and northwest of Chateau Thierry, were defeated. In the afternoon Very strong partial attacks broke down against our new line, linemy columns which were endeavoring to reach the battlefield bat-tlefield were the objectives of our successful battle planes. Our chasing planes shot down thirty-two enemy airplanes. On the front south of the Marne ' the French, since their failures of July 16-17, have only directed partial par-tial attacks southeast of Mareuil, which v.ero repulsed. Between the Marne and Rheims and east of Rheims the fighting activity has been confined to local operations. Fnemy attacks in the Bols du Roi and on both sides of Pourcy broke down. We have captured prisoners in successful attacks northwest of Troesnes on the Huippes" ami on both sides of Berthes. The number of prisoners brought in since the 15th exceeds 20,000. Marne our troops yesterday by a vig-' vig-' orous attack retook Montvoi'sin and threw the enemy out of the outskirts of Oeuilly. To the north of the Marne we have made progress in the Koi wood and the Courton wood and carried our line a kilometer to the westward, Further north the Italians have taken Moulin d'Ardre and conquered ground in the region of Bouilly. .In the course of these actions the French have captured four cannon, thirty machine guns and 400 prisoners. pris-oners. Between Mondidier and Noyon and also in the Woevre region in raids against the German lines we captured cap-tured 100 prisoners. |