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Show B lijlali 11 lolfi LlMLIi I I1C1KJ III CDAMT I LtNo, I rKANLt H Have Captured Great Center K of Coal Mining Industry on West Front. LONDON, April 15, 12:30 p. m. B British patrols entered Lens between 2y 4 and 5 o'clock this morning, accord- fcjy mg to u dispatch received frpm the Wf correspondent of Lloyd's News with B the British array in Prance. H Describing the conditions about Lens Wt tho correspondent wires: K "Though tho enemy is still in his ma- m chine-built redoubts in some places, H these are only rear guards, for the H main body has retreated. H "Lens and Lievin had been stacked K with guns and it was certain that at B least fifteen were in the not work of H mines and pitheads. K "From the prisoners we know that wild scenes took place in Lens, frantic efforts being made to get away guns and stores and dofend the lino of retreat re-treat by blowing up the roads. "Orders were given to destroy the mines by firing charges Into the pits and by flooding tho mine galeries." Tho civilian population evacuated tho town on Friday and great fires are burning, showing that the Germans Ger-mans are destroying their stores preparatory pre-paratory to their departure, according to a staff correspondent of the Associated Asso-ciated Press, while the British official communication tonight announced that tho British troops are on the outskirts of the town. Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig's principal object, however, in his advance ad-vance on Lens is rather to turn La Bassee from the south, La Bassee and Lens forming the principal outworks of Lille, which is the key to the whole German position in Flanders and once these towns are in the hands of the British, Lille will be severely threatened. threat-ened. The German attack astride tho Ba-paume-Cambrai road today indicates the efforts made in defending the junction junc-tion of the Hindenburg lino to St. Quentin and Le Fere with the line hastily has-tily organized between Lens and Bulle-court, Bulle-court, near Cambral, when the German chief of staff, Von Hindenburg, realized real-ized that Vimy ridge was daily threatened. threat-ened. The British nearly broke through at Bullecourt, which Ib near this junction, junc-tion, last week, and, although falling there. Field Marshal Haig transferred his attentions further north, and danger dan-ger for the Germans still exists, especially es-pecially as, according to tho Associated Associat-ed Press correspondent, the Hindenburg Hinden-burg line is still far from being properly prop-erly organized. The Router correspondent at British headquarters gives an interesting story of how the British officers studied beforehand be-forehand a small model of Vimy ridge moulded by an Ingenious officer out of plaster, indicating every natural feature, fea-ture, the trenches, railways, defenses, roads and streams, even the mine craters, cra-ters, prepared from aerial photographs and direct observation, and all available avail-able knowledge thus gained proved of immense advantage when the attack was carried out oo |