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Show INAVAL BA TTLE IN SIGHT ia tS eif tSt HA IG IS HOLDING HIGH GR O UND I Germans Pushing For Vital Point In British Lines Enemy Headed for Hazebrouck, A Highly Important Import-ant Railway Town Communications to Mes-, sines and Ypres Would Be Reached Heavy 7 German Attacks Repulsed. Although the loss of Bailleul and some oi th e conipsrfl" cively high ground around it. such as Mount de Lille and Revetsberg. represents a decided setback for the defense, the British line, as it has been withdrawn, is still on ground much higher than the Germans occupy. The British artillery thus possesses numerous advantage points. Chief among these high spots is Mount Kemmel which towers up more than four hundred feet from the low ground about Wulverghem. !wo milcp to the southeast. Apparently Field Marshal Haig's forces still have a firm hold on all this valuable hill region. German Frontal Attack. What may be i ailed the frontal attacks at-tacks of the German upon the ridge system back of Meuse. Wytschaete and llolleboke furnish the spectacular feature of he operations as refle ied in louay 3 Pews. One brief paragraph' In Field Marshal Haig's report, how-rvor, how-rvor, has un importance attached U it I that should not be overlooked, "t rv- cords the repulse of heavy German , attacks southwest of Yiux Berquin. Pushing for Vital Point The German line here runs along the easterly border of Nleppe wood and it is by a push to the northwest n this region that the enem hopes o reach Hazebrouck. some sven miles distant and takes in this highly irnp'u-ir.ni irnp'u-ir.ni railway town Well-nigh vK-.l I rail communications to the Messineis J and Ypres regions would thus cut. The j I;r;tish line Ss being strongly held in this region, however, and the nankin.-, movement shows no signs of, making progress as tbe report of 'lie Vieux Berquin engagement shows The German effort at present seem? J centered upon the northern side of the Lys battlefield no important fight-j irjg being reported from the sectors. Naval Activities Started. In view of the recent rumors of pos- j sible naval activities by the Germans to accompany their land offensive, the news from London today showing that British naval forces have been operat- j ing in the Cattegat, the strait between Sweden and E'enmark and have sunk ten German trawlers there, is significant. signifi-cant. Still more significant seems the form of the British announcement,! which comes in a report from Vice Admiral Ad-miral Sir David Eeatt. commander ln-ohlef of the grand fleet This would appear that the grand fleet is out and possibly presages most important nav-i nav-i al developments. The operation was undertaken r terdaj for the purpose of sweeping tho Cattegat of mines, the report shows, and may Btill be in progress. What British effort, if any, the op oration implies, cannot well be forecast. fore-cast. It is indicative of intensified, British naval activities, at any rate,1 if not preliminary to far important operations op-erations on the purt of the British naval forces f, ' Tremendous pressure exerted by picked fresh troops in the desperate German effort to drive the British j from Messines ridge has compelled a .slight retirement of tho British line on tho northern eidc of the Lys battle front. The town of Bailleul has teen evacuated nnd the British front withdrawn with-drawn to a line running from north of that town to the north of Wul-verghem Wul-verghem and thence to Wytschaete. Wytschaete occupies the highest point of the easterh ridge system and the British have been firmly established estab-lished hero since the oarly uays of tbe enemy offensive. The Germans, through their push into the southwest, are now apparently in a more advantageous advan-tageous position to attack It and their expected drive upon it was reported developing this morning. As It forms the pivot of the British line which bends here to the north, an extremely determined defense of it is looked for by Field Marshal Haig's troopa. LONDON, April 10. Ths Germans captured Bailleul on the northern battle bat-tle front, the war office announces. The British have fallen back to new posiUons north of Bailleul and Wul- vert'hea Hi Fresh German attacks r.rc developing develop-ing in the neighborhood if Wytschaete. Wytsch-aete. A German attack southwest of Vieux Berquin was repulsed. The statement reads: "Yesterday evening, preceded by : an intense bombardment, the enemy launched very heavy attacks against our positions between Bailleul and Neuve Eglise. The assault was delivered de-livered by threj picked German divisions di-visions which had noi been previous ly engaged in the battle and it sue ceeded after a fierce and bitter struggle strug-gle in carrying the high ground southeast south-east and east of Bailleul known as Mont de Lille and Revotsburg Our troops on this front have fallen back to new positions to the north of Bail-leu' Bail-leu' and Wulverghem. Bailleul has fallen into the enemy's hands "This morning iresh German attacks are developing iu the neighborhood of W) tschaete. "Early this morning the enemy also attacked southwest of VieUX Berquin under heavy artillery and trench mortar mor-tar fire, but was repulsed. "A number of prisoners were taken by us during the night in a successful minor enterprise southeast of Ro-becq. Ro-becq. "On the remainder of the British front there was nothing of special interest to report," Heavy Artilery Fighting, PARIS, Aoril 16. Heavy artillery 1 fighting occurred last night on the i main battle front in the direction of I Montdtdier, the war office announces The French captured a machine gun i and prisoners near the Oisc canal The statement follows: "In the region south of Montdidier j there was hcayv artilery fighting. In the sector of Noyon the French made some progress in a local operation "French reconnoltering parties were very active especially In the region of the Oise canal. A French detachment detach-ment crossed the canal west of Pier-remandc Pier-remandc and brought bark ten prisoners pris-oners and one machine gun. French patrols also took prisoners in the sec I tor of Corbeny in the Champagne near Seirheprey and the Vbsges. A German Ger-man raid at Teton was repulsed. "Everywhere else the night was calm ," Review of War Situation. British resistance haing Stiffened ;and held the Germans to small :iins I in the past tliri -- day.-, the battle west of Armentieres has reached the stage j of massed local attacks to gain a de-sired de-sired objective. There are indications that the Ger-mans Ger-mans will start a drive on the south -hern side of the new salient in an ef-j ef-j fort 10 renrh B thune The enem artillery fire along a ten -mile front from Robecq to Glvenchy is in ing in intensity and large bodies of troops have been discovered behind ; the Cerman lines. The British line ! here is about one mile north of. and i parallel to the La Bassee canal. Given -chy, held by the British, has not been attacked since the repulse of strong enemy efforts last week Like the drlvo in Picardy. the offensive of-fensive in Artols srerns to have worn (itself out in the first week. The Cer-I Cer-I mans have censed their attacks along the entire front and are confining their efforts to an endeavor to outflank l he Messines ridge. Heavy Fighting in Progress. Around Wulverghem, between Neuve Eglise and the Messines ridge, heavy fighting also is going on The Brit Ish have straightened out their line near Neuve Bgllse b retiring to the northwest. Berlin claims to have gained the British lines northeast of Wulverghem. which would bring them near Messines on the eastern slope of the ridge. Violent Artillery Fighting. On the Picardy battlefield tbe German Ger-man attacks on Hangard have died down Very violent artillery fire continues con-tinues there and the French gunners I have dispersed enemy infantry al tempting to advance from Demuin. On I the remainder ol the French front there has been artillery exchanges. The Germans Facing the Americans north and east of St Mihiel have not r newed their attacks The rebel cause In Finland appears I to be in bad straits German troops have occupied Hclsingfors. the Fin-! Fin-! nish capital, and which was held by the rebels. The Russian fleet of 20Q ; vessels stationed at Helsingfors was reported to have rscaped to Kion-stadt Kion-stadt last week. British Cabinet Cnoic Avoided. Danger of a crisis in the British cabinet cab-inet is believed to have been avoided through a conference :ho Labor min-i min-i isters had with Pri mi r Lloyd -George. They urged the. premier to grant self-I self-I government to in land on the basis of the majority report of the Irish contention con-tention and his reply is reported to har been satisfactory Meanwhile, a home rule bill Is hein- drawn up and meetings of protest againsi conscrip-: conscrip-: tion are being held throughout Ire-I Ire-I land. |