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Show GREAT STRUGGLE OF THEJR1ES Paris, Jan. 20. The following official offi-cial communication was issued by the war office tonight "Last evening the enemy gained a footing in one of our trenches to the north of Notre Dame de Lorette. This morning he was driven from it following a counter attack, leavinc in our hands more than 100 prison -ers 'During the course of the night of January 19-20 in the region of Albert, an attack to the south of Thlepv&I, which had progressed as far as our wire entanglements, was thrown back Three successive at-ta at-ta lu on La Boissclle met the same fate. In the Argonne an attack by the enemy on La Fontaine Aux harmes was repulsed after a hand to-hand struggle." London, Jan. 20. The actions along the front from the sea to Alsace have reached a point where they may almost be referred to as "war by Inches." For days the official statements state-ments of both the French and German war offices have related the particu lars of "splendid trains f 100 yards.'' and those from Paris and Berlin lo-day lo-day and tonight are no exception to the rule. Hand to hand fighting at some points on the front seems to be raging rag-ing with considerable violenep and it Is at these plaees that the hard won gains of yards are being made At other places, either because of unfavorable weather or for other causes, cau-ses, the action has settled down into long dogged duels of field artillery, enlightened now and again by infantry infan-try clashes and occasional sallies by the supporting cavalry Of actual news there has been none since the battle of Soissons, and presumably act urate French accounts ac-counts of that engagement now that it is virtually over, show it to have been distinguished more or the violence vi-olence of the fighting than for anv tsrategic gains on losses on either side. Berlin claimed today a victory at Notre Dame de Tvorette, northwest of Arras, minimizing the importance of the action by labeling it as a "minor BUCCeSS." Tonight's French official tells of a counter attack which offset the first Herman gain, drove the kaiser's kai-ser's troops from the summit they had occupied and brought more than one hundred prisoners into the French camp. Another action in the vicinity of Albert seemed for a time to be turned turn-ed into a German triumph. This was slightly to the south of Thiep-val, Thiep-val, where the Germans succeeded in fighting their way up to the barbed wire entanglements of the French po sition The French and British, ably seconded by the Belgians, who were holding the position with them, mack-a mack-a desperate rally at this stage of the fighting and by a series of charges and heavy fire from the trenches forced the Germans to give up the ground previously gained and retire to their former positions. |