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Show li Italians Inflict Severe Defeat On the Austrians I I FRENCH DEAL POWERFUL BLOW Ij ON STRONGLY FORTIFIED POSITION New Advances Along the Somme Front-Made by Both British j and French Forces Berlin Admits Capture of Position ? and Complete Demolishing of Trenches Fierce Attempt At-tempt to Regain Lost Ground Fails Before Brit-, ish Barrier of Fire Germans Forcing Issue I ( at Verdun French Forced Back j in Violent Attack. Ij Dealing another powerful blow at the German lines, the French last night took a strongly fortified position posi-tion between the Hem wood and Monacu farm, close to the river Somme, northwest of Peronnc, according accord-ing to this afternoon's Paris bulletin. New advances along the Sommo front, in northern France, ha'c been made by both the French and Brlt-The Brlt-The French gain, the more important, import-ant, is admitted by Berlin. It was effected ef-fected between Hem wood and Mon-acu Mon-acu farm near tho river, wnere a strongly held German work was captured. cap-tured. The German trenches, says the Berlin report, had been completely complete-ly demolished. The British made their progress east of Porzieres as the result of hand, to-hand fighting. The Germans were on the aggressive west of Highwood, but were unable to get beyond the British fire barrier in an attempt to recapture lost ground. Little indication of the progress of events on the Russian front is contained con-tained in today's official report from Petrograd, which records merely rifle and artillery duels at various points and the repelling of minor attacks on Russian positions. The German war office declares that several Russian attacks in the Stokhod sector were beaten off. Before Verdun, where the Germans have been violently attacking east of the Meuse, they have captured a height northwest of Fort Souville. Apparently the Germans are making a renewed effort to force the issue at Verdun. Paris last night reported heavy attacks east of the Meuse, in -.which" the -Fxench-lhies"'wWe-1te'mpora-rily penetrated in some scc'tofs. Today To-day the French war office admits that in the continuance of these attacks at-tacks the French lines have been pushed a little further back in the Vanx-le-Chapitre wood and at Chenois, northeast of Verdun. French Capture Powerful Works. Paris, Aug. 2, 12 noon. North of the river Somme last night the French troops took a powerfully fortified German Ger-man work between Hem wood and Monacu farm, it was officially announced an-nounced by the French war department depart-ment this afternoon. On the right bank of the river Meuse, north of the fortress of Verdun, Ver-dun, there was a violent series of engagements throughout the night at Vaux-le-Chapitre wood and Chenois extending to the east as far as to the 1 south of Damloup. After a series of unsuccessful attacks, some with asphyxiating as-phyxiating gas, the Germans gained a little ground in Vaux-le-Chapitre wood and at Chenois. , 9 During the actions the French took nrisnner 1 nnGnrmans. includinr three HI- officers. HI A Russian reconnoiterlng the party. HI the statement adds, made a bayonet HI charge In the Champagne region, dls- Hl perBing a German detachment. Hi The text of the statement fol- Hl lows: HI "North of the Sommo, between the HI Hem wood and the Monacu farm, our Hi troops captured a fortified work HI " strongly held by the enemy. South HI of this river an attack delivered by HI us near Estres resulted in our oc- Hj cupation of a German trench to the HI northwest of Benicourt; we also took HI some prisoners. H "In tho Champagne district west or Hi Auberlve a Russian recounoltering HI party delivered a bayonet charge HI: against a detachment of the enemy, Hi! which was thereby dispersed, leaving HI' behind a number of dead. H Violent Fighting on the Meuse, H "On the right bank of the river Hfi Meuse the fighting continued last night with violence along the front H& between Vaux-le-Chapitre and Chenois H i and spread "to the cast as far as a H point to the south of Damloup. The enemy, after a series of fruitless at-H at-H tacks, some of which were accom- panied by the spreading of asphyxiat- ing gas, gained a little ground in the wM Vaux-le-Chapltre wood and at Chenois, but elsewhere all their endeavors were checked by our fire. In the course of these engagements, which 1 resulted In important losses to the enemy, we took 100 prisoners, includ- H ing three officers. "Along the Sommo front our avlat- ors yesterday showed great activity. A total of 33 aerial encounters Look place over the lines of the enemy. . One German aeroplane, attacked by two Nieuport machines, was seen to H fall in flames, while fourteen other ! I- Germa nmachlnes, seriously damaged, I were compelled to land or were seen JH j to dive down within thicr lines." h French Penetrate German Trenches. H: Berlin, Aug. 2. Via London, 5:15 p. m. On the high road between H: Marlcourt and Clery, in the region of ?jH'j tne r,ver Somme, French troops pene- -?H'' trated "to our completely demolished Hi trenches," nays the official statement I Hi issued today by the German army HwV headquarters. The Germans captured Wi(f a hill in tho salient northeast of Fort I Souville In the region of Verdun. ( With regard to operations on the ($ t eastern front the statement says several sev-eral Russian attacks against the German Ger-man positions in the Stokhod sector broke down. The official statement follows: "Western front: North of the Somme, Som-me, in the sector from Maurepas to the Somme, the enemy vainly attacked attack-ed during tho evening with very strong forces after having suffered a sanguinary defeat during local enterprises enter-prises against Monacu farm, through a speedy counter attack by German battalions. On t"hc high road from Marlcourt to Clery the enemy penetrated pene-trated to our completely "demolished trenches. The enemy losses were again considerable. South of the Sommo there was local fighting near Belloy and Estres. "On the right bank of the Meuse (Verdun front) we made some progress pro-gress o the northwest and to the west of the Thiaumont work. Wo captured a hill salient northwest of Fort Souville Sou-ville and pressed the enemy back considerably in the mountain forest and in the small Laufee wood. Nineteen Nine-teen officers and 9S2 unwounded men wore taken prisoner and 14 machine guns were captured." Austrians Suffer Severe Defeat. Rome, Aug. 2. Via London, 1:25 p. m. The Austrians suffered a severe se-vere defeat in Monday's engagements in the Astico valley, the war office announced tonight. Their attacks on the Italian lines at Monte Seluggio, Castellatia and Monte Cimone were repulsed with extremely heavy losses for the attacking forces, the official statement declares. An Italian aerial squadron dropped four tons of high explosives jm-.the White Head Torpead"ai7d"5uhmariho Works west of Fiume in Hungary yesterday, yes-terday, seriously damaging the plant, the announcement adds. The statement 'follows: "Further information received shows the serious nature of the defeat suffered by the enemy in the fighting fight-ing in tho Astico valley on Monday. After a heavy bombardment of the whole line between Tovo and the Assa valley the enemy made demonstrations" demonstra-tions" on Monte Seluggio and on Cas-tellatta Cas-tellatta and attacked in force on Monte Cimone but were defeated with very heavy loss. "As enemy aircraft had on July 27 attacked Italian open towns on the lower Adriatic without any military object one of our strong Caproni squadrons yesterday bombarded the Whitehead Torpedo and Submarine Works three kilometers west of FiUme. In spite of the heavy fire of anti-aircraft artillery and attacks by enemy aviators our aviators succeeded suc-ceeded In dropping four tons of high explosives which did much damage to the works." |