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Show I Marshall Foch 's Forces Making Flank , . 1 Attack on Strong German Positions 1 1 1 . I j WITH THE BRITISH ARMY IN FRANCE, Aug. 1 9, by , The Associated Press. British troops after capturing Outter- j steen ridge, in front of the town of Merris, have beaten off a J j vicious counter-attack and inflicted heavy losses on the enemy. '4 ; More than 500 Germans were captured by the British. The ridge was captured by the British yesterday and the 2l ' Germans counter-attacked last night and this morning. The , position'which overlooks considerable ground held by the en- ' emy in the direction of Bailleul now is firmly in British hands. ',' On the new Sommc front local fighting continues, the j '! Entente Allied forces biting off pieces here and there all along a ; the line. 'j 'i There are some indications that the enemy has made-up z his mind to withdraw from the present front, but would j j rather go back in contact with the British so asto inflict all the I '! casualties possible by the free use of machine guns and with- ! out himself risking many of his men. ) Intense shelling and bombing of enemy rear areas con- I : tinues. At no point has the enemy organized attacks even j ! against the new outposts of the British. i j LONDON, Aug. 19, 4:45 p. m. French troops pene- I trated into the village of Le Hamel on the hills west of the j Oise and northwest of Ribecourt today, according to advices t from the front. During the fighting today the French were on the aggressive but made spme slight headway against the de- termined German resistance between Lassigny and the Oise. LONDON, Aug. 19, 1:20 p. m. The French Tenth army which attacked the German position.-:- between the Oise and the Aisne last night has penetrated to an extreme depth ) of nearly two miles. The enemy machine gunners are resist- i ! ing desperately and the German air service, also, is very active. J St. Mard-les-Triot, a little over a mile southwest of Roye, was taken by the French yesterday, according to reports from ,1 the battle front. The French also captured the town of Beuvraignes, 2 3-4 miles south of St. Mard, according to the . -3 dispatch. The new French line runs from Fontenoj' to the ridge : ! south of Audignicourt. From there it runs to Nampcel which the French have surrounded and extends to the edge of the ! Montagne forest. It passes about fifteen hundred meters south of Carlepont and finally joins the old line north of I Tracy-le-Val. The French now hold rather important high j ground to the south of Audignicourt. , 1 T j ; (By The Associated Press.) j Launching what may be described 38 an extensive local attack, the French on Sunday evening broke rough the German positions along u ! l"e vital sector connecting the Marnc 5 J and Picardy battlefields. I This attack was over a front of ap- ? ; proximately ten miles from near , j Carlepont, east of the Oise, to Fonte-noy Fonte-noy on the Aisne, about six miles west of Soissons. It Is officially reported H 'hat an advance to an average depth of 1.3 miles was made all along the front of attack. A total of 1700 prison - c , er8is reported from Paris. It is report- , ed from London that an extreme pene- - tratlon of two miles has been made. The villages of Nampcel and Nouv- l t n'v,nare have been captured and 1- 1 the French have reached the southern i i edge of the ravine at Audingicourt, 1 : which Is between Nampcel and Nouv- i ron-Vingrc. Y 1 Since the situation along the Aisne j and Vcsle and in Picardy lias seemed i j : be approaching a deadlock indicat- i lng a return to the old trench warfare j t oj the first two years of the war, an i attack in the sector between the Aisne i I and the Oise has been expected. This g "ne is vital to the German positions i ) on each side of it. If It should be I i Drken the whole German defensive i u?16 would bc thrown out of joint. V. 1 While the front over which the as- , ' l" was launched is short compared J , with those of the Marne and Picardy j arivcB, the success attained by the E i appears to point to a possibil- - 'iy of Marshal Foch breaking the I , :?tny resistance by a flank attack in- I j "cad of a direct assault against the I :', "rng positions now held by the Ger- I JL'j? betwecn Soiscons and Rhdms I and between the Oise and the Ancre. H h3 u9 tnc Picardy battle front thers navc bccn local actions in which -100 r prisoners were taken by the French London reports that the French have captured St. Mard and Beuvraignes, near Roye, thus increasing the peril of that bastion of the German line west of the Somme. Further north the British have penetrated pene-trated the German positions near Ar-ras, Ar-ras, German attacks In the Flanders sector have been repulsed. In the Mervllle sector the British have made a new advance, probably following the Germans who have been retiring In this part of the Lys salient for the last week. PARIS, Aug. 19 Bet-ween the Oise aud lae Aisne, Fronch troops attacked at six o'clock last night over a front of nearly ten miles between Carlepont, Carle-pont, about four miles east of Ribecourt Ribe-court and Fonteuoy, approximately six miles west of Soissons. They advanced ad-vanced an average distance of one and n third miles over the whole front, according ac-cording to the official statement Issued Is-sued by the war office today. 'The French havo occupied the plateau pla-teau west of Nampocl, about seven teau west of Nampcel, about seven miles northwest oC Fontenoy and the edge of the ravine south of Audignicourt, Audigni-court, two miles and a half east of Nampcel, according lo the statement Nouvron-VIngre was captured. Seventeen Seven-teen hundred prisoners including two battalion commanders, were taken in tho operation. The text of the statement reads: "During the night there were violent artillery actions north and south of the Avrc. "Tho number of prisoners counted in the region west of Roye yesterday exceeds 400. "Last evening at six o'clock French troops attacked to rectify their front between the Oise and Aisne. The attack at-tack was over a front of about fifteen i kilometers from south of Carlepont to i Fontenoy. We have realized an ad- vance over th'e whole line to an av-j av-j erage of two kilometers approximate- iy. I "We have occupied the plateau west of Nampcel, reached the south edge of the ravine at Audignicourt .3(1 cTipmm''N6ul?oTiVi1 hundred prisoners including two bal- I talion commanders were captured. j "The night was calm on the rest of I the front." LONDON. Aug. 19 Near Mervllle. at the apex of the Lys salient, tho Briush have made further progress,, says the official statement from Field Marshal ,1-Iaig today. Fifty prisoners land a few machine guns wore captur-; ed. j A German counter-attack between Outtersteen and Mctcren was broken up by the British artillery the state- j I nienl says. j The text of the statement reads: "Wo secured a lew prisoners lasti ! night in the Ayetto sector and also! j south of the Scarpe where our patrols I entered the enemy's trenches and pen-I pen-I etrated some distance into his position. posi-tion. 1 "North of the Scarpe a hostile raid-', raid-', Ing party was repulsed with losses, j "During tho night our troops made progress in the Merville sector in spite of the opposition of hostile machine gunners. They captured between -10 and 50 prisoners and a few machine guns. j "Early in the night ,the enemy , launched a counter-attack against our ! new positions between Outtersteen nnd Meteren. The attack was completely broken up by our artillery and machine ma-chine gun fire. i "The total number of prisoners cap- hired in yesterday's successful opera-. ; tion in this sector is not yet available. "The hostile artillery has shown i some activity south of the Sommc and I has been active southwest and north-1 north-1 west of Bailleul." Morning Review of the War Situation (By the Associated Press) Fighting on tho western front still is confined to local actions wjth the! initiative in the hands of the allies. The scenes of most activity are the j Picardy battlefield and the Lvs sal-1 : lent. j I South of the Somme the French and j British maintain their pressure against' Roye. Northwest of Roye tho British have made progress between Chilly and Fransart, while south of the town tbo French havo taken 400 prisoners! j in spiriled local actions south of Beuvraignes. Beuv-raignes. ! The German efforts lo hold their line between Roye and Lassigny havo been challenged by the French and with success. Since the general fighting in Pi-J Pi-J cardy died down, the French have been pushing relentlessly northeastward northeast-ward between Roye and Lassigny with tho ovident purpose of outflanking both positions. Tho Germans have been pressed back in violent combats. From Bailleul which is on tho northern north-ern sido of the Lys salient, to the j apex of the salient near Vieux-Bcr-I quin, the British havo been pressing back the Germans steadily and now j apparently havo them off all tho high I ground on this sector. The latest Bri-! Bri-! lish gain was on a front of four miles ( between Bailleul and Vieux-Berquln for a distance of more than half a mile. The enemy ajso lost 100 prisoners. pris-oners. Field Marshal Halg's men re-occupied Outtersteen, about three-quart, ers of a mile cast of Merris, which probably'marks the maximum progress in this region in tho last week. Further Fur-ther British progress toward the Lys would endanger the German hold on Mount Kcnimcl and the high ground in that region. The British also have made a slight advance southwest of Merville. S |