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Show GERMANS FAIL TO REACH OBJECTIVE Captured Document Reveals Three Smashes on Allies Intended. FACE 28 DIVISIONS Enemy Driving at St. Venant in Effort to Reach Railway Rail-way Center. WITH THE BRITISH ARMY IN ' FRANCE. Frida. April 12. (By The I Associated Press ) With the exception excep-tion of Mervilie, Hie Germans thus f:ir have not reached their objectives in j pari for the present drive norm and '-outh of Armentieres, but today's developments de-velopments indicated that the enemy bad no intention ot abandoning the assault as-sault immediately. A captured German Ger-man document reveals that there were to be three smashes on me front north and south of Armentieres. One I had Bailleul as lie mam objective the i other M rville and Aire, and the third ' Bethune. I Not less than twenty-eight divisions i had been employed by the enem in this pretentious program which has 'meant that at some places the brit-j brit-j ish have been very heavily outnumbered. outnum-bered. A German division aggregates 13.000 to 11 ,000 men, including 7,500 i rifles. Germans Driving at Railway. St. Venant, between BierviUe and I Aire, was being heavily attacked today to-day by strong forces of Germans after their success of last nighi. which gavo them possession of Mervilie. The enemy en-emy seemed desirous of reaching Aire, a railway center, and were throwing larg number of troops In-to In-to the conflict in an attempt to drive; the British back. Tho German threat 1 in this direction undoubtedh is of considerable importance The fighting today continued to be' of the bitterest nature, not only in the Menille neighborhood, where the main assault was made, but also northward from Givenchy. Yesterday and lat night the enemy continued his pre-sure fromlWytSCh-1 aete southward and gradually forced the British to fall back from Ploea; j steert and Plocgsteert wood until thei battle was being staged today near! Neuve E.lis to the west. Steady Pressure Maintained. Meanwhile, steady pressure was maintained in the Estaires sector beyond be-yond which lay Mervilie and Aire. During the night the enemy pushed back the defenses at Lestrem and captured cap-tured C alonne-sur-Lys, just southwest of Mervilie. At the same time they pressed down through Neuf Berquin, a littlo above Mervilie, and these two converging forces hurled themselves on th"- town. Giving way before superior numbers, the British fell back toward St. Ven- - cnt, lighting doggedly all the way. against the closely pressing Germans.) A sanqulnary battle was proceeding today east of St Venant with the British Brit-ish making a determined stand During Dur-ing the night the British counter at-tacked at-tacked west of Steenwerck, west of i Armentieres, and re-occupied La1 Bacque after nard fighting. Nine Divisions at Givenchy. The German attack about Given- by, on the southern end of the battle line, was being pressed today by some nine divisions. There has been virtually no cessation in the fighting here since the beginning of the battle Tuesday. Thus far. the British have maintained a stone wall defense against which ;he Germans have flung themselves with heavy losses. Today the casualty cas-ualty list of the attacking troops was swelled appallingly as "the British artillery and machine guns pounded concentration points and troops advancing ad-vancing in close formation. British Gunners Brilliant Work. The work of the British gunners at Givenchy has been noteworthy. On the tirst day when the Germans swept forward in masses and the situation was very grave, many artillerymen worked for hours shooting point blank I at close range. One gunnery sergeant 'stood by his piece firing witn open sights at a range of 2) yards and held the enemy off for a considerable time before he was compelled to fall back. The British troops, who have been making such a gallant stand just above I Givenchy, also distinguished them-I them-I selves by holding the Germans up for hours at a certain piace in the battle before Cambrai on November 30 when the enemy counter attacked. It became known today that of the 710 Germans captured near Givenchy last Tuesday, 300 were rounded up while devoting their energies to loot- ing a British canteen. oo |