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Show FT. VAUX WON AI SMALL COS! French Military Expert Describes De-scribes Retaking of Position East of Verdun. i Paris, Nov. 3. General Neville crowned the greatest positive French victory of the war yesterday evening when he occupied Fort Vaux, the last of the Verdun strongholds occupied by the Germans. That It was a bloodless blood-less triumph is due not to German generosity in yielding an undesired position, but to the awful gunfire to which the famous ridge was subjected. The French today enlarged their success by. a series of brilliant attacks which. 'the midnight communique announces, an-nounces, have enabled them tto advance ad-vance as far as Vaux village, besides winning a foothold on the hill which dominates the village. Tactical Triumph Without Loss. , But to return to Fort Vaux. Its occupation oc-cupation marks the first great tactical triumph won in the whole war without loss of life. And the explanation there-fdr, there-fdr, is France's development in gun power. Technically, Fort Vaux was rendered untenable when a fortnight ago Generai- General Mangin seized Douaumont and drove a wedge between be-tween the fort and the vllage of Vaux. The result of this move was to expose Foil Vaux to a converging arc, but the fort was in precisely the same position posi-tion as during last May and June, yet at that time Major Reynal held up the crown prince's advance for a month and inflicted terrible slaughter on the .German assailants before he and his handful of mon vere compelled com-pelled to capitulate. The capture of Fort Vaux alono cost the Germans 50,0000 permanent casualties. On Monday Generals Neville and Mangin began to pound the fort and ridge. For seventy-two hours thousands thous-ands of tons of high explosives were hurled into the ruins, while all the corridors running up the hill and communicating com-municating with the fort were swept with three-inch shells. Fort Cost 50,000 Casualties. Early yesterday the great French sixteen-lnch long range guns began to hurl their massive missives among the wreckage. The huge shells penetrated pene-trated the underground casements and corridors, blowing some of the garrison garri-son to pieces. When, late in the after-coon, after-coon, the cannonade temporarily ceased, to enable the observers to report re-port on Its effect, the French infantry, infan-try, posted in trenches a thousand feet :listant, heard thunderous explosions beneath the fort's wreckage and instantly in-stantly realized that the Germans were destroying all the ammunition stores they were unable to remove jwing to the fire which was drenching 'Vioir pntrnniinlpnlinns "Rut it WAR not until late at night that General Mangin Man-gin sent forward three companies to occupy the position, which they did without the loss of a man. Shapeless Mass of Wreckage. The fort is now a shapeless mass of debris, which, with its masses of mutilated corpses and battered equip-ment, equip-ment, marks the loss of the last foothold foot-hold the crown prince had on the main Verdun plateau. His army is at this moment entrenched a hundred yards below and to the east. I learn today that the German staff has definitely resolved to maintain a. passive defensive on the western front, and not to attempt to strike back at the allies for the present, meanwhile concentrating the whole Teuton offensive power against Rumania. Ru-mania. oo |