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Show ALLIES GAIN AND LOSEINBATTLE French Go Forward, But the Italians Are in a Precarious Position. LONDON. Oct. 27. Fresh gains of terrain by British and French forces on the Yprcs sector, by the French north of the Alsno river and by tho combined Gorman and Austro-IIungar-lan armies in the Austro-Italian theater thea-ter recorded in the latest official communications com-munications from London, Paris and Berlin. The new gains of the British and French in Flanders were obtained in another swift and decisive offensive launched In tho early hours of the morning over tho front between the southern edge of the Houlthost wood tind the region of Gheluvelt. Bad weather and soggy ground hampered the operations to some extent and all the objectives set out fo could not be taken A majority ot them, how-over, how-over, rested in the hands of the allies at the end of the day's fighting and a considerable number of prisoners and guns also wero captured. More than 800 prisoners fell into the hands of Field Marshal Haig's men. With the important railroad junction junc-tion of Laon their objective, the French troops are continuing their press against the forces of the German Ger-man crown prince north of the Alsne river. In another attack on the right, tho village of Filain has been captured, cap-tured, a footing has been gained on the plateau north of Epine de Chev-regny Chev-regny and tho enemy has been forced to give ground north of LaChapelle Sain,t Bertho. These1 successes serve materially to bring the right wing into alignment with the remainder of the front and place the entire line in a better position for another smash northward toward Laon. That the attack may not be neces sary, however, is forecast by the military mili-tary expert of the Berlin Tageblatl. who. while belittling the chances of tho ultimate success of the French operations, op-erations, asserts that it is not outside the German rules of warfare voluntarily voluntar-ily to abandon territory not essential to Germany's great tactical plan, in order or-der that losses may be reduced. The Austro-Gorman armies on the Isonzo front are fast developing their offensive against General Cadorna's forces. Already the Italians on Ihc northern wing along the twenty-five mile front have been forced to give ground and at several places are back across the Isonzo north and south of Tolmino, where the battle is raging on Italian territory. To the south the situation of the Italians admittedlj is precaDlous. Even tho Italian Avar office announces that the evacuation of the Balnslzza-Heili-gengelst plateau is necessary a retirement re-tirement which will render null in tr Croat measure the brilliant advance of the Italians in the summer campaign. cam-paign. The combined German and Auslro-Hungarlan Auslro-Hungarlan forces up to the present are declared by the Berlin war office to have captured in excess of 30,000 prisoners and more than 300 guns and it is stated that the figures hourly aro being augmented. The German retreat along the northern north-ern Russian front still continues. Russians Rus-sians endeavoring lo take up the pur-1 suit have reached the Riga-Orel rail-1 way but have not come within sight of the enemy. On the Esthonian coast the Germans again havo endeavored to make a landing on tbo Werder peninsula pen-insula to reinforce the troops successfully success-fully put ashore ,there last week. Tho Russians, however, drove them off. 00 |