OCR Text |
Show SJrtADILY I Troops Overrun Area in Two Days Equal to German Fif-teen-day Drive. BATTLING FORWARD H British and Germans at Grips in the Open in Desperate Hand-to-Hand Fighting. BRITISH ATtMY HEADQUARTERS IN FRANCE, Thursday, Nov. 22. (By the Associated Press) The success of ; tho British arms in the Cambrai sec- r tor has continued to grow steadily and Field Marshal Haig's troops in a little more than two days fighting have I overrun an area equal In size to that ,won by the Germans during the first fifteen days of their spectacular dcle on Verdun. British cavalry, tank5 and VM infantry today were battling their way JM forward along a line which at many IH pointi. west and southwest of Cambrai JM was less than three miles from that important town. The advance also IH was spreading northward in the re- IH gion of Bullecourt and the salient to- ward Cambrai was being widened. The total of prisoners captured must ap- i proach the 9000 mark. 1 Fierce Hand-to-Hnnd Fighting i At. last the British and Germans are at grips on comparatively open ground j IH . and some of the fiercest hand fighting of the war has been going on. The IH ' enemy troops were unprepared for the VM attack, but they have been putting JH every ounce of their strength into an attempt to stem the rising tide. i jH Cripples Called Out Troops, have been pulled r.way from other points and rushed, to the Cam- ' bral sector by the desperate Germans land so hard pressed were they for f men that two companies of cripples j IH and convalescents were recruited has i IH tily at one camp and thrown into the I line In the region of Masnlcres. Some i of these pitiful objects arc In British hands and aie receiving medical treat-ment. treat-ment. One prisoner was in the last stages of tuberculosis and he had to be moved to prevent the disease from jH spreading to the others who were in a 'H state of cruel exhaustion and virtually holpicss from their valiant attempt to ' fight under the lash of their unrelent-Ing unrelent-Ing officers. Scenes of Bygone Wars IH The great uattlefieid has taken on IH the aspect of scenes in wars gone by. It is no longer a conflict of trenches and shell holes, but of men struggling bitterly with rifles and bayonets over jH a virgin battle ground, while the long neglected cavalry sweeps In pictures-que pictures-que charges against the enemy poti tlons over tho wide territory inclved. The roads everywhere for two days jH lm e been swarming with advancing troops and with prisoners and civil- jH lans coming back from tho front. Many rejoicing non-combatants, men, wciuon and children, have been pour-Ing pour-Ing out of the captured towns under jH the guidance of their deliveries from jH German bondage. People Marching Home. 'iH This has been a battle of strange sights, but no more striking spectacle ihas been witnessed than that of these people marching toward homes and IH iCOiutort back of the British front. Through the very gaps which the 1 tanks had torn In the famous Hinden-burg Hinden-burg line, mothers yesterday and to-day to-day were pushing baby carriages con-taining con-taining infants or tramping happily along with their babies clutched to JH their breasts. Beside them toddled I other youngsters, many of them carry- , ing their treasured dolls and not a few JM 'clinging determinedly to squirming puppies which they dared not trust to run on the ground. Many old men and women were bringing away all the household effects they could pack on pushcarts or carry on their backs. For three years they had been in captivity and some of them in slavery They had been subsisting on the boun- 'H ty of the American relief committeo which furnished them virtually the only food they obtained. Hard Fight at Crcvccoeur jJ Hard fighting has taken place today iH at Crevecoeur, southeast of Masnieres. IH The British were holding a high ridge in front of this place and some troops had forced an entrance into the west- jH ern part of tho town. The Germans were still holding the eastern section A German battery here which had been giving trouble was charged and capturod by dismounted cavalrymen. ( Continued on Page 6 ) IH BRITISH GAINS ARE GROWING STEADILY (Continued from page 1.) I The battery was surrounded by heavy I barbed wire entanglements, precluding preclud-ing the use of horses, so the soldiers stormed the position on foot and annihilated anni-hilated the gun crews. In the region of Rumilly, heavy machine ma-chine gun and rifle fighting was proceeding pro-ceeding last night and this morning. Tank Cars Advancing West of Cambrai, tanks, cavalry and infantry were pressing the attack vigorously vig-orously about Fontaine Notre Dame and the strong position In Bourlon wood. Fontaine Notre Dame has not been officially reported captured. But the story goes that lank crews were served with hot coffee by the civilians in this place this morning. (Field Marshal Haig's ofTidal report Thursday Thurs-day night said the Germans had retaken re-taken Fontaine Notre Dame.) Further north near Bullecourt the British were in possession of the entire en-tire underground fortification known as the tunnel trench, which had been famed for Its supposed impregnability. At least five determined counter-attacks have been smashed in this region. re-gion. Southeast of Bullecourt hard fighting occurred at Moeuvres last night and a strong counter-attack was repulsed. Last Trench LineG Broken The last line of trench defenses in the region of Cantaing have been broken and the British today were firmly established at many points in the Masnleres Beaurois line south of Cambrai. Details of Tuesday Battle It is now possible to give more details de-tails of Tuesday's batttle. In the advance ad-vance south of Cambrai the first hard fighting occurred at Lateau wood, which lies on the Cambrai highway south of Masnleres. This wood finally s'as cleared of Germans and the advance ad-vance continued toward Masnieres. Some opposition was encountered in a suburb but by 1 o'clock this had been overcome and the British had crossed the L'Escaut canal at a lock. The small German garrison fought bitterly to retain Masnieres. The whole place was undermined with dugouts in which the enemy was hidden with machine ma-chine guns, but the Germans were forced to give up this place after a sanguinary struggle, although, some of them were still holding out in the cel lars. Marcoing was taken with small resistance re-sistance on the part of the enemy and this gave the British a second crossing cross-ing of tho canal. The advancing troops forced a passage here at the same hour as Masnieres was entered. The Masnleres-Beaurols trench line north of Masnieres apparently had been reinforced by Germans from Masnieres and this force held up the advance temporarily with rifle and machine gun fire but the British alternately alter-nately forced the Germans from the trenches in hand-to-hand fighting. German Resistance Weak German resistance on the first day was comparatively weak as a whole and they surrendered . freely in many places. Yesterday their lines stiffened and hard fighting followed. German reinforcements froni Lens and the two companies of invalids already mentioned men-tioned were thrQwn into the line. The first counter-attack came over the ridge from the northeast of Masnieres. Mas-nieres. The enemy advanced in massed mas-sed formation as in the early days of the war. The British had concentrate ed a large number of machine guns at this point and were hoping for a counter-attack. They permitted the enemy to advance to within a thousand yards of the line before they opened fire. Then the machine guns and artillery were turned on the Germans and thoy were smashed In a withering storm. At 1 o'clock an attack on Marcoing was attempted by the enemy but, as in the former case, they wore caught in a heavy artillery and machine gun fire and they turned back after suffering suffer-ing severely. An hour later another body of Germans Ger-mans advanced on Noyelles, which was held by one company of British troops. Here some of the stiffest fighting of the battle took place at close quarters. Both sides rushed up reinforcements and for two hours the battle surged back and forth through the streets and among tho buildings. It was a meleo in which tho bayonet played the principal part. The Germans Ger-mans fought welll, but they were not good enough to withstand the fury of the British assault and gradually thoy were forced back across the canal to the cast. Several Officers Captured. Among the prisoners taken by tho British were several officers who were caught in the regimental headquarters. Tho regimental commander was captured cap-tured and it Is reported that his advent ad-vent Into the British lines was a particularly par-ticularly humorous spectacle. He camo tramping - back, clad in an elaborate fur coat, followed by two servants who carried more of his finery. He was swearing mad at tho turn of events. The sight of a company of British cavalry threw him almost into a frenzy and the lurid languago which he dlrectod at the British drew a smile from even the hardened Tommy, -who has a somewhat plcturosque vocabulary vocabu-lary of his own. , Civilians Are Rejoicing. Civilians who wero released from Masnieres today told something of their experiences In the last threo years. They rejoiced at their new found freedom and many of them today to-day still wept with joy when tho subject sub-ject of their deliverance was brought up. It was a motley crowd which i came out of this place people in all conditions and from many walks of life. Among thorn was the mayor, M. 1 Lofilalne, a middle-aged man, who acted as spokesman. Thoy first heard of the approach of the British from machine gun firo In the distance. They wore thrown Into a stato of excitement excite-ment and watched for the coming of their friends from every point of vantage vant-age available. Wonder nt Strange Monsters. They obtained their first sight of the advancing forces at the bridgehead bridge-head and saw coming with the attacking attack-ing troops strange monsters which they never dreamed existed. They wero the great tanks and the peoplo stared in amazement as these mighty engines ploughed their way forward. Then only 380 Germans were holding hold-ing tho town and all, except a few left In the cellars, withdrew before the British entered. With the civilians who groeted the British were two Ger-I Ger-I man soldiers, one from Alsace and tho other from Lorraine, who had deserted de-serted and were waiting to give them selves up to tho British, with whom they sympathized. During their years of captivity the civilians were fed by' the American relief committee. All other food was requisitioned by the Germans, who placed heavy penalties on those who concealed any. For instance, the secreting of a bottle of ordinary wine called for a fine of ten francs or a long term in prison, and there was twice as severe a penalty for hiding a bottlo of champagne. Many civilians served terms in jail for violations ol the orders. They were well fed, however, how-ever, owing to the American relief, and all appeared healthy. Houses Stripped of Furniture. The Germans had stripped all the houses of the town of their furniture as soon as they entered. Among the houses thus pillaged were five magnificent magnifi-cent chateaux. All men of military age were arrested and sent to Germany. Ger-many. Women were compelled to do all manner of work, such as sweeping streets, washing clothes of German officers and waiting on officers. Tho mayor declared his belief that Germany was actually starving. He said there seemed no doubt that the civilians in Germany were undergoing cront hsi rrl cli ina ' Military Refugee Found. Among the most interesting of the refugees was a man of military age who had hidden in a cellar for three years to escape the Germans and had been fed by his wife with an extra ration of food allowed her because she had a baby. This man is 35 years old and in the ordinary course would have been arrested and sent to a prison camp as soon as the Germans entered the town. He did not want to leave his wife and baby and so hid in a secret place in the cellar, thereby making himself liable to the death penalty if detected. German officers came to live in his house and daily he heard them tramping about above him. In accordance with the custom this house and all others were searched every little while to see if anyone was concealed, but the Germans Ger-mans never discovered his hiding place. Each day while the officers were away his wife smuggled his little store of food and water to him. When the British entered the town the wife, after making sure that they indeed were British, went home and brought out her husbnnd, who had his first glimpje of the outside world since August, 191-1. The Germans were to have searched the house again the day the British captured the town. This refugee sceme'd to be in fair health, notwithstanding his confinement, confine-ment, but his nerves were badly shattered shat-tered and he wept continually today as his story was being related. He was clinging to a bag continlng several hundred francs which he had carried with him into his cave. |