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Show BRITISH I SMASH I ATTACKS I Germans Have Bad Twenty-four Hours in I Their Offensive. I INTENSEJ1GHTING I British Reclaim Ground I in Copse East of I Arras. I BRITISH HEADQUARTERS IN FRANCE. Sunday. March 31. The last 24 hours contjnued unfavorable H to the aggressive Germans along the ! British section of the new battlefield in France and was a strikingly good period for the defenders, Tnis morning morn-ing the British were holding their en- i tire line wtih strength and they had smashed numerous heavy German attacks at-tacks at various points and had taken iho initiative at several places successfully. suc-cessfully. The most intense fighting continued south of the Somme in the zone where the French have been making such a gallant stand. The outstanding feature of the conflict on the northern end of the front is that the British again have killed a great number of enemy which, despite its harsh sound, is what will end the war. British Reclaim Ground. Today the British initiated a forward for-ward movement about Feuchy copse east of Arras They launched a local attack at 3 o'clock this morning and pressed it so vigorously that they reclaimed re-claimed a stretch of territory 1500 i yards long and averaging about 200 yards in depth. This success had tactical tac-tical advantages, but they were small compared with the fact that the British Brit-ish were able, after the past ten days of gruelling work, of undertaking an offensive operation. South of the Somme. where there has been so much hard fighting, the I British appear to have the situation well in hand and the town hall of Moreuil, about which sanguinary struggles have been swaying, was at last "reported still flying the British flag defiantly from the steeple. One of the most costly attacks the enemy attempted at-tempted yesterday was between Bforelancourt and from where a h;?avy assault was made against, the Australians Austra-lians shortly after midday. Germans Leave 3000 Dead. The attackers came forward in masses and the British threw themselves them-selves against the advancing line so fiercely that the Germans were hurled back, leaving three thousand dead. Tie' British operation at Lassign farm, south of Hebuterne, between Albert Al-bert and Arras yesrerday afternoon, which resulted in straightening the defenders' de-fenders' line, was a brilliant success. The Germans were pushed back with heavy casualties and British troops re turned with 200 prisoners. 40 machine guns and a trench mortar. South of Arras the enemy made two attacks yesterday. One was near Hamelin-COUrt Hamelin-COUrt astride the Arras-Bapaume railway, rail-way, while the other was north of BoiVleux St. Mare. Both of these ef forts were smashed, although partlc-Ularly partlc-Ularly hard fighting occurred around j .( Continued on Page ) I BRITISH SMASH ATTACKS (Continued from Page 1) Boisleuw In this operation the Germans Ger-mans advanced in cn at numbers after an intense bombardment of the British line6 for two hours. At throe places the enemy succeeded in penetrating the defenseand a bitter hand-to-hand struggle ensued. The British made such strong resistance that the Germans Ger-mans were thrown back, leaving numbers num-bers of dead. Northeast of Arras the Germans made a small attack Saturday after a heavy bombardment and pushed forward for-ward over a tiny strip of ground, but the operation was so small as to be hardly worth considering. Enemy Knocked Out. There was an unconfirmed report today that a large concentration of Germans in preparation for an attack on a certain place on the battle front had been caught in an artillery and machine barrage and completely knocked out. The results of the fighting on the British front south of the Somme during dur-ing the past two days have been satisfactory- Heavy German attacks on both sides of the Luce river Friday forced tho British to fall back somewhat. some-what. Friday night the enemy pushed forward and penetrated a large wood northeast of Moreull which created an uncomfortable situation for the defenders. de-fenders. British Cavalry Attack. Saturday the British decided to attempt at-tempt to restore the lines and cavalry' was sent out for the purpose of clearing clear-ing the wood and re-establishing tho positions north of Moreuil. There was not a hitch in the program. The cavalry cav-alry swept through the forest like a winter snowstorm and forced the on-emy on-emy to iall back not only here bui further fur-ther to the north. North of the Luce river yesterday raoming the enemy attacked in force along tho British line between War-fusee War-fusee and Marcelcave. This assault was preceded by a vigorous artillery bombardment. The cavalry was again put into play and by 10 o'clock the German were compelled to admit defeat de-feat and retire with large casualties. A little later the enemy again put down a tremendous barrage between Warfusee and tho Somme and after two hours oi terrific gunlire advanced in masses. They came against more cavalry and met a similar fate, the British line remaining intact i North of Aubercourt, south of Mar-ceicave. Mar-ceicave. the British stormed ai4 re captured important high ground to which the Germans had clung tenaciously. tenac-iously. Brilliant Feat of Small Band. It is now possible to tell of a spectacular spec-tacular and brilliant feat last week below the Somme. It is the story of a little army composed largely of assortments as-sortments of troops who were hastily assembled in a great crisis and who successfully held a vital stretch of the ground against ihe furious German onslaughts on-slaughts until reinforcements could arrive. In this gallant force were included American railway engineers who. as In the battle of Cambrai last November, Novem-ber, threw aside their tools and took up arms in defense of the allied colors. II was last Tuesday afternoon at a critical moment when it was absolutely abso-lutely necessary that more troops should be thrown Into the British line to hold the onrush of Germans. Reinforcements Re-inforcements were on the way but could not arrive in time There was no time to lose and a certain general immediately ordered a forec collected irom the various units nearby in which were the Americans. Fifteen Hundred Follow General. I'ifh en hundred followed their leading lead-ing brigadier general out into the .-wirling battle line where they were strung out on a front of 1200 yards i.iinst which hordes of Germans were flung. It seems almost conceivable that these defenders, brave unto death i hough they were, could have been able to hold that long sector but they held. The enemy advanced In force and hurled themselves time and time and again and again against the Brit -: ish line in this region but they found no weak spot. This composite force stood as gallantly and as well as their comrades to the right and to the left. They clung on for many hours until (In- rerular nrniv came un Tin i n sample of the fighting soirit which allied soldiers are showlne in this time i ress. This incident is more spectacular but hardly finer in soirit than that of seven British soldiers. These lads had been home in England on leave I and on landing at a channel port in France, found no transportation to th front. Did they sit down and wait? They did not. They tramped almost every foot of the wav to the battle lines to take their places beside their hard pressed comrades. |
