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Show CONTINUE FIERCE BATTLE IN FRANCE GERMANS ARE SLOWLY LOSING GROUND IN BATTLES WITH THE ALLIED FORCES. Heavy Artillery Plays Important Part, While Lighter Artillery is Used With Deadly Effect, Both Sides Losing Heavily. The battle on French soil betweei the invading German forces and the French and English troops continues. From all reports it would appeal that the Germans are being steadilj forced back, losing ground at aboul the rate of seven miles a day. The battle, or series of battles, appears ap-pears to be the most stubbornly contested, con-tested, while the loss of life must be enormous. It is estimated three million mil-lion men are engaged in deadly combat com-bat on French soil. Two terrific blows were struck Friday Fri-day on the battle front in the north of France, and it is believed that the beginning be-ginning of the end of the ferocious engagement en-gagement which has progressed steadily stead-ily through thirteen days is near. The allies, after suffering a check to their advance forces operating to tne northwest .of Noyon in the movement to turn the German right, were able to 'bring up reinforcements which they hurled into a renewed attack and again hurled the Germans back in spite of the superior force which the Invaders brought to bear. The surprising show of force by the Germans indicates that the mam bodies of the reinforcements which have been drawn from the German center and the army of defense in Lorraine and the Vosges have arrived to buttress the enemy's shattered right. The hardest fighting apparently Is proceeding on the eastern and western west-ern ends of the lines, the allies on the west endeavoring to encircle the Germans Ger-mans and on the east the Germans trying to break through the allies' lines in the vicinity of Verdun. The German offensive was extremely ex-tremely vigorous on Thursday at the western end of the long line stretch, ing along the rivers Oise, Aisne and Woevre. The allies troops whose gaps had been filled with freshly arrived reinforcements rein-forcements not only repeatedly thrust back the masses of Germans thrown against them, but eventually carried out a successful counter attack, which resulted in the gaining of considerable consider-able ground and the definite capture of Peronne, about which town the fiercest engagement occurred. At one place the victims of the deadly German machine guns were counted in hundreds, especially where the advance was across an open wheat field that recently had been harvested. Some men of a French regiment which was making a dash toward the German position when it was struck by the sweeping fire were found dead in the kneeling posture they had taken behind sheaves of wheat and from where they had emptied their magazines, intending to start a final rush and bayonet charge. Heavy artillery continues to play s leading part in the battle of the Aisne, which now has been in prog ress a fortnight. With the greatesl stubbornness the opposing forces con tinue to hammer away at each othei from their well Intrenched and strongly fortified positions, but up tc the present without reaching a de cision. |