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Show 'COUNTER MCK ' OTTOMANS 'French Guns Mow Down the '' Enemy 17,000 Prisoners and 75 Cannon Taken. PARIS, April 18, 11:10 p. m. Since the beginning of the great French ) drive on the sotithcrn end of tho bat- tie line the French have captured 17,-000 17,-000 unwounded prisoners, together with 76 cannon, according to tho of-' of-' ficial statement Issued by the war office of-fice tonight Desperate fighting took place over many Bectors between French and Germans today, tho Germans launching launch-ing numerous powerful counter attacks, at-tacks, nil of which were put down with great losses, tho official report says. The text reads: "South of St Quentin, after a very spirited bombardment, the Germans attacked our positions east of Gauchy. Tho first attempt, stopped short by our fire, was followed by a second of greater violence, during which groups of the enemy penetrated penetrat-ed our advanced elements. In immediate im-mediate cpunter-attacks all the occupants oc-cupants were killed or taken prisoner. pris-oner. Our lino was completely reestablished. French Continue Drivo. "Between Soissons and Auborivo we energetically continued our action despite the persistent bad weather. "North of Chavonne our troops occupied oc-cupied tho village of Ostel and drove back the enemy a kilometer to the north. Braye-en-LaonnoIs was likewise like-wise captured, as well as all the giound to the east as far as the outskirts out-skirts of Courtecon "Under the energetic pressure of our infantry and the murderous action ac-tion of our cannon the enemy fell back in disorder, abandoning important import-ant material and leaving in our hands his supply depots A single one of our regiments took 300 prisoners belonging be-longing to seven different regiments. We captured 19 cannon, of which five Avere short siege guns. "South of Laffaux our troops covered cov-ered on the south by division artillery, artil-lery, routed the enemy and occupied Nanteuil-la-Fosse Bridgehead Captured. "Finally, on the south bank of the Alsne an attack, carried out in spirited spir-ited fashion, gave us a bridgehead organized by the enemy between Conde and Vailly, as well as the latter lat-ter place in entirety. In the forest of Ville-au-Bois an important unit, surrounded by us, threw down its arms Thirteen hundred hun-dred prisoners and 180 machine guns which served as the defense of one wood, were taken "About 4 -30 o'clock in the after noon the Germans launched a very violent counter-attack with effectives of two divisions (40,000 men) against our positions between Juvenicourt and the Aisne. Our barrage and the fire of our machine guns, broke down tho attack and inflicted sanguinary losses on the enemy who was able to reach our lines at no point" |