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Show BATTLE FOUGHT UNDERGROUND French Make Gains in Hand-to-Hand Struggle to Southwest South-west of Douaumont. Parle .April 7. Last night's war report says: In the Argonne we exploded a mine in the region of Vaquois. To the west of the Meuse ,the Germans continued to bombard persistently per-sistently the Bethincourt salient and the villages of Esne and Monteeville. To the east of the Meuse, Cote du Polvre was ubjected during the course of the day to a violent bombardment which foreboded an attack, but our curtain of fier prevented the enemy from setting out from his trenches. To the southwest of Fort Douaumont Douau-mont a series of small engagements of a hand-to-hand nature enabled our tioops to progress In the underground passages and works o the enemy on a front of 500 meters to a depth of more than 200 meters. A counter-attack delivered by the enemy, at tho end of the day completely com-pletely failed. In the Woevre our batteries concentrated con-centrated their fire on various points of the enemy's front. In Lorraine our artillery displayed activity to the east of Luneville, between be-tween the Vezouse river and the Vos-ges. Vos-ges. There is no othor Important event to report on the rest of the front except the usual cannonading. French Aviation Victories. During the month of March our aviators displayed much activity along the whole front, particularly in the region of Verdun. In the course of numerous areial combats thlrty- m s one aeroplanes were brought down by our pilots, nine of which fell In flames or were crushed on the rogund within our lines and twenty-two fell Inside the German lines. No doubt exists regarding the fate of these twenty-two aeroplaneB, which our pilots had attacked within the enemy lines. Twelve of these were seen to fall in flames and ten were driven down in spirals under fire of our aviators. In addition, four German aeroplanes aero-planes were brought down by our Bpeclal guns, one of them within our lines In the environs of Avocourt and three Inside the enemy linesone in the neighborhood of Sulppes, one near Nouvlon and one near St. Marie-a-Py. To this total of thirty-five German aeroplaneB destroyed during the month of March should be opposed the number of our aerial losses, which reached thirteen aeroplanes, as follows: One French aeroplane brought down insldo our lines and twelve French aeroplaneB brought down within the German lines. The great disproportion between the falls effected within the French zone and those within the enemy zone, with reference to French and German aeroplanes, is significant. According Ac-cording to a document found on a prisoner, German pilots received the order to cross their own lines as little lit-tle as possible. The results of the month of March prove, on the other hand, that our pursuit aeroplanes have flown incessantly over tho territory ter-ritory of the adversary seeking combat. |