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Show i j ; - ww.ipwwj jjuen, uiin jH - Germans Drive Allies In BayoneTTight I J FRENCH TAKE GERMAN FIELD WORKS AFTER FIERCE ARTILLERY FIGHTING Various Successes are Reported Along Battle Line Hand-to-Hand Fighting of Most Desperate Nature in Suburbs of Soissons Two German Attacks Near Vic Sur Aisne Are Repulsed Battle Along the Aisne Rivals in Ferocity That Which Occurred Along the Yser. Trench official statement given out tbls afternoon recites French successes suc-cesses yesterday at various points along the battle line, most of them, artillery engagements. None of the actions seems to have been of great importance. There was stormy weather weath-er yesterday in Flanders, as well as In the Vosgee. The French official communication j-cads as follows: , "From the sea to the Oise there iwas yesterday a violent storm particularly par-ticularly in Belgium. The day saw lartillery fighting at certain ixunts "Near Autrecht, to the northeast of Vic Sur Aisne, two German at-itacks at-itacks were repulsed In the sectors of Soissons and of Rheims there v;ls j no change. In the region of Perthes ther was very efficient marksmanship on the part of our artillery on the posi j" v tions of the enemy "In Argonne, the German attacks on 'Hill 2W to the west of Boureuil les. brought no result. We took pos- , cession of several German field works to the northwest of Pont-a-Mousson. in the only part of the forest nf Lepretre which is still In the hands of the enemy We later here repulsed re-pulsed a counter attack and maintained main-tained all our gaius. 5 "In the Vosges there has been a i heavy fall of snow. The enemy bom- f barded Thann, but witiiout inflicting 5 serious damage." ) i German War Statement Berlin. Jan. 18, by wireless to Lon- . J don, 3 p. m. The German war of-. t fice today gave out an official an- t nouncement as follows: "In the neighborhood of Nieuport yesterday there were artillery duels, but nothing else. No attacking movements move-ments have been undertaken by the enemy in the last few days. "British mines have been washed ashore at several places on the coast French Driven Back. "At Ia Boisselle northeast of Albert our troops who again had established themselves in the church yard of La Boisselle and in the hamlet to the southwest, attacked the French with , the bayonet and drove them from their positions We took prisoner three officers and 100 men. Several trenches have been captured in the Argonne forest. The French detach-ments detach-ments occupying them were almost annihilated. The French attack on our positions to the northwest of Pont-a-Mousson. against a hill which is two kilometres la mile and one-fifth) south of Vel- i ce3r, advanced as far as our trenches. This fighting still is going on. "In the Vosges and in Upper Alnace a heavy enow storm and fogs have prevailed, interfering with the fighting. fight-ing. The situation in East Prussia has undergone no change In northern Poland the Russians attempted an advance ad-vance across a branch of the river Wkra. near Radzanow, but were repulsed. re-pulsed. Nothing of importance has transpired on the Polish Vistula." London. Jan 18. 1:12 p m. London 1s recalling that this is the forty-fourth forty-fourth anniversary of the proclamation proclama-tion of Wilhelm I as German emperor, and in the British capital 1t is expected ex-pected that the day may bring news nf widespread German effort to follow fol-low up with a still more Important movement the success achieved last eek in the neighborhood of Sols-sons. Sols-sons. In London It i6 believed that the Germans have adopted what is vir tually a defensive role to the west of (Warsaw some British observers ar-gulnir ar-gulnir that this has been forced upon tbem by superior Russian numbers and 'that these defensive tactics synchronize with the movement of many thousands of Teutonic troops Trom Poland to the French and Belgian Bel-gian battlefields The lighting at Soissons, some British commentators declare to be the precursor of the entry of these now troops upon a vixorous. offensive, perhaps an attempt at-tempt to cross the river Aisne. At Soissons the French failed to hold their positions on the northern bank of the river and for the Germans to attempt to gain the southern bank is regarded as a development to be expected. ex-pected. As to future engagements in this region, it appears to be a fact that the French artillery on the hills , eouth of the Aisne commands all the , approaches to the river and that il Will have to be reckoned with. Russians Slowly Push Back Enemy. In the eastern arena of the war the steady pressure which the arrival of one million of last year levies has enabled en-abled the Russians to exert upon the Germans, according to news (Lis-patches (Lis-patches reaching London, has been slowly pushing back the German line to the west of Warsaw. News dispatches dis-patches today report the Russian re-occupation re-occupation of Plock, This report has not been confirmed officially, but the Russians on Saturday crossed the Skirwa mor a few miles below that point and may have been able to occupy oc-cupy the city. Russian forces already had reached Sierpec and Gomblu, lying, ly-ing, respectively, directly north and south of this provincial capital. The Russian defeat of the Turks, if the claims of Petrograd are fully borne out. was so decisive that it may mark the close of the Ottoman attempt at-tempt to invade Russia in the Caucasian Cau-casian region The Russian victory probably will free enough of the Caucasian army to oppose effectively the Turkish forces which are approaching ap-proaching the frontier further eastward east-ward throuch Persia. |