Show LOSS CURTAIN RT Ani OF f FIDE EDMAN C COUNTERATTACK B Both th British and French Beat Back Desperate Assaults Made by Teu Teu- T eu t tons ns to Re Regain a n Lost Positions BERLIN Sept 16 Via London London London- After severe fighting on the Somme front yesterday says today's German official statement the German troops were forced back through the village of Courcelette and Flers Fler The town of Combles the statement adds was held by the Germans German In the face of strong British attacks attack LONDON Sept 16 Kin George sent the following message message mes meso sage today to Gen Sir Douglas Dougla Haig the British commander i it h France I I congratulate you and m iu 1113 I brave troops on the brilliant sue suc sueI I lj y W ret will ultimately crown ro our efforts and the splendid results of the fighting yesterday this view vie vie O As All a result of or their offensive norl of the Somme begun yesterday morn mornIng ing lug g alon along the a six mile lx front from norU of or Combles to beyond the Pozieres road the Ule British hold bold in tel thel entirety entirely the villages es of Courcelette Martinpuich l and Flers tho the war announced this afternoon The official statement follows South of or the on the malt mail battle battie front there has been no mate matI material rial change Four our German field gun were captured and a further brought In Two local counter attacks by th enemy nem were beaten ot off and we hot bol the line gained yesterday esterday which no no runs yards ards to the north of lug Big woods and includes the whole of th large villages of or Courcelette Martin Marth I and Flers each fully twice th size of Guillemont i Many successful enterprises carried out outlast last night at various point pain on the rest of or our f front nt our troop entering the enemy's trenches at man roan places inflicting casualties and prisoners PARIS Sept 16 German German count counte attacks were made on the Frenc lines both north and south of tl ih Somme last night They were the war office announced t day The assaults were delivered t the tho east of Clery on the north ba ban of the river and east of ot Berny to tI south of the stream below Peronne I During yesterdays yesterday's fl fighting t days day's bulletin states the French rench to toe prisoners In a single trench t bodies of six eighty dead Genna Genoa were pick picked d up The statement follows North of or the Somme our troops a consolidating their new South of the Somme the enemy tempted to make an attack east Berny Bern He lIe was checked by our ci ct tarn tain of fire The Tho total number of unwound prisoners captured in the actions yesterday esterday has reached In to the war materials the capture which was reported previously took three bomb throwers In a s s gle gee trench W we found the bodies of ot ci cit ty six GermansOn Germans On the rest of front the night calm I BRITISH I FRONT IN FRANC Sept universally 14 Via London London Army Army offic orne I I universally are arc speaking of Friday i the best day for tor the British arms sIn I the offensive began on the tho Sam Somi front With the tho exception of or July the attack begun yesterday was the most extensive of any in t weeks of the battle For the fi tI time new armored motor cars of genious pattern suitable for tor cross crossl trenches end and shell holes compe with the infantry as the British sw down from tram the ridges to the tea loi 01 ground toward Bapaume At this w Ing tho the British are beyond the villa viii of or Flers Piers which they thy took early in t f morning and are established In M Id and Courcelette The slow plodding plodding- work of rec weeks which Included the taking GInchy and Guillemont had for i object control of all aU ot of the h hi ground from the region of Thlen Thiep to the Junction with the tile French the right The Germans fought taught h ht for tor every foot toot of It ft Delville or Dev wood High wood and the rib of ea which the windmill crowned bey Pozieres have been steeped with bl blot of ot men fallen tallen there in their long s sta under the heaviest orgy of ot shell f Continued on page pace pa j GERMANS ADMIT Continued from page 1 I in the history of war as experts agree as German wrestled with Briton not for a a piece of farm land but for military mili tary and human mastery The British push was largely down hill They put behind them the high ground whose slopes give them shelter for their guns and whose crest gives them observation for their artillery fire Evidently the Germans did not expect the attack considering that the offensive was over and that the British would settle down for t the e winter winter winter win win- ter in their new and advantageous po po- po- po Never before probably have more guns been playing over the same length of front than along the six miles where the British made their advance on July 1 and where they have continued their offensive with phlegmatic and dogged persis persistence ence The Germans kept on bringing up guns until now they have 1000 in this short sector The Associated d Press correspondent moving over th region of the devastated villages an and I shell torn earth intersected by new roads saw on Thursday how enormously the British had increased their own artil artil- lery Sun tanned and weather beaten were Yere the gunners after atter their ten weeks of work There were lines and clusters and parks of guns Rows of battery were firing with something of the regularity regularity regularity reg reg- of mechanical workmanship of the needles of a loom weaving cloth Alongside each other were British and French batteries The gunners of neither ally could speak the language of the other yet both were going on with their parts according to charted instructions At midnight the correspondent again walked about among the guns which were going on with their night shift of gunners whose figures were Illuminated illuminated by flashes Except for r the g gurta gunk J b wh lm y o sit i th larmy army ant seemed silent and asleep for th the most part Everybody and everything was in place and I ready ady Including those strange grotesque new armored cars which were to have their baptism of fire in the morning We Ve keep on learning we of ot the new army said one of ot the young officers and with every show do a little bet bet- ter Battle is the great teacher And the guns never stopped their raking ear-raking noise from daylight to darkness darkness darkness dark dark- ness and darkness to dawn Now and then the keys of ot that strident piano were struck in a chord When dawn came all the keys began to bang at tt once Before the g general attack began there had been a hellish little preliminary side show near Thiepval The Germans Germans Germans Ger Ger- mans had there a warren of deep dugout dugout dugout dug dug- out and galleries which they called their Wunder Werk Verk Before daylight daylight day day- light the British got in there under underCover undercover undercover Cover of their gunfire bombed their way through galleries which became catacombs and made themselves masters masters mas mae of the position after hours of ugly work Then also before sunup only an hour before the time set for the British at attack attack at- at tack the tack the Germans who had no idea the British were coming on in another big push made a small attack in the neighborhood of farm They took a section of trench and were holding holding holding hold hold- ing it at the moment that wave of British six miles mile long began to move The British reserves in that area swept over the Germans and their own men who were struggling with the Germans on the objective set for three days' days work A chill chili autumn morning mist preceding preceding preceding pre pre- ceding a day of brilliant sunshine hid the actual attack which the British of officers officers of- of think was the most skillful the British army has ever made The British were putting behind them not only the ridge but the old second line lineas as af well as the first line trenches which they struggled so hard to gain and were going against the new third line which the Germans had been building under unceasing British shell fire With the Infantry went those new motor cars across trenches and shell holes So ludicrous are they in ap appearance ap- ap that the British soldiers laughed at them in the midst of the I charge They cheered them as they played their streams of ot machine gun bullets Like some prehistoric monsters monsters monsters mon mon- they must have seemed to the Germans who had to seek dugouts or flight or else they surrendered So far as reports Indicate tonight the British everywhere gained possession possession posses posses- sion don of the new German trenches except ex except ex- ex opposite There the Ger mans clung with desperate courage and arid to dog-to-bone tenacity to remain oh on that bit of high ground in that piece by piece defense of his There he still keeps up the struggle at last accounts Again In High wood he had kept a redoubt with a nest of machine guns which the armore motor cars engaged machine gun to machine gun while the British h infantry passed around it as around a a. rock in a flood Among the tho prisoners are are six colonels One of these had the honor of being captured by th the newest weapon which has nas added to present day warfare This armored motor car which which crosses trenches and holes ran over the colonels colonel's dugout He surrendered sur cur rendered to the crew which took him on board and after the fight was over delivered him to a guard of Infantry In one case Germans surrendered in m a body to one of the armored motors AgaIn an aeroplane Plane reported that one w of or the motors was moving up a street of or the village of Flers while wildly yelling British Infantry followed it Aeroplanes descended very low during the battle and never were ther fights lights or more vicious onslaughts than those of today while the new armored cars were participating in the i infantry f charges Altogether British brought down thirteen German planes |