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Show ; MOWED DOWN DY i MACHINE GUNS r German Infantry Faces a i Heavy Fire But Gains I Its Objective. 1 BRITISH FRONT IN FRANCE AND r BELGIUM, Aug. 12 (By the Associated i Press). Hand-to-hand fighting of the - most furious nature, in- which bay-. bay-. onets and clubbed rifles were utilized, 1 were developed in tho Glencorso wood l yesterday as a result of a German ) counter-attack by which the enemy re-l re-l took the southeastern portion of this elevation. Glencorso wood was tho 3 southern extremity of the line taken 3 by the British in Friday's offensive i and owing to the fact that it com-,, com-,, manded the surrounding country the f Germans determined to regain it at . any cost. j Yesterday's counter-attack was most ( determined. The Germans preceded their infantry advance by an intense r bombardment from guns of all calibers and then sent troops forward under a heavy barrage. The Germans were met by a strong fire by the British artillery and, as they approached the wood, were mowed down in largo num bers by machine gun lire, tmt tne expenditure of life did not enter Into the German calculations. They wero willing to pay the price, for this important im-portant position and the infantry was hurled forward through a rain of death until tho wood itself was reached. Two British battalions, the Queen's Royal West Surrey and the Bed fords, made a valiant fight against the numerically nu-merically superior forces of the enemy, en-emy, but wero forced gradually to withdraw, battling every inch of the way with their bayonets and their rifles used as clubs. In the northwest portion of the wood, however, they made such a determined de-termined stand that the enemy was unable to continue his advance and the British retained possession of it The German losses wero exceedingly heavy, being greatly in excess of. the British casualties. Hold to Ridge The Westhoek rldgo position, which the British took Friday morning, has been held against numerous German counter-attacks and the line now extends ex-tends along the forward crest of the ridge with its left on the Ypres-Roulers Ypres-Roulers railway and with tho right merging into the Glencorso wood. German prisoners say that they were taken by surprise in Friday's offensive and that the British were upon them before they wero aware that an attack at-tack was impending. The fighting along the ridge and in the Glencorse wood on Friday was most bitter and sanguinary, a large part of the ridge being taken with tho bayonet Heavy casualties were inflicted in-flicted on the defenders. At one strongly defended point tho Germans withstood the British for three hours with machine gun fire and then the position was rushed by the attackers, the Germans being forced out. Glencorso wood also was filled with machine guns and tho Queen's and Bedfords who finally captured it had to fight their way through a veritable bail of lead. oo- Lloyd George used to be a very ably hated gentleman In England and, as illustrative of his countrymen's dislike dis-like of him, he used to say: "A good swimmer was once walking along a river bank when he heard the cries of a drowning man. He fearlessly plunged plung-ed in. Jerked the man to the surface, turned him over to make sure he wasn't Lloyd George, then hauled him out." |