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Show ALLIES MEET A DEFEAT I & dt & g GERMANS OCCUPY KEMMEL HILL . . : . I (Flanders Again Scene of Great War Maelstrom ! . : . ' Enemy Hurling Thousands of Troops Against British Who Are Fighting Tenaciously to Hold Defense Lines Heavy Artillery Duels in I Progress South of the Somme. LONDON. April 26. The Germans in their attack on the northern battlefront have occupied Kemmel hill. General Delmar Radcliffe, chief of war operations at the war office stated this afternoon. WITH THE BRITISH ARMY IN FRANCE. April 26.; by the Associated Press. The French this morning are coun-ter-attacking at Mont Kemmel in an attempt to reclaim the positions taken by the Germans. Yesterday's fighting was of a desperate nature and the enemy gains were only made at a frightful cost. i Htnvy Fighting in Progress. Heavy fighting is still in progress today along the ridge line of the Flanders' front where the peak of Mont Kemmel is the German objective This peak evidently is yet disputed ground but with the German threat J against it more menacing, as it is conceded con-ceded k-y the British that the enemy has secured a fooling on the hill. Although faced b a superior force Id the ten mile sector between Bailleul and Hollcbeke the Anglo-French troops holding this line battled stubbornly stub-bornly all day yesterday. The line seems to have held fairly well to the southwest of Mont Kern- j mel, but to the northeast the Germaus were apparently to push forward far enough in the neighborhood of Vier-straat Vier-straat to enable them to approach the height on the flank. The allied effort naturally will be to concentrate against this enemy wedge and drive it back again sufficiently to ease the pressuie on the easterlv side of Mont Kemmel. Definite possession of Kemmel hill by the Germans might mean that the British would have to abandon the Ypres salient, according to correspondents. corre-spondents. The fighting on the Somme front has died down to artillery fire following yesterday's British recoup which reclaimed re-claimed the village of Villers-Bretonneux. LONDON. April 26. A. footing has been obtained on Kmme hill by the Germans in their attacks on the northern north-ern battle front, the war office announced an-nounced todu. The lighting is still continuing in this region. The allied forces were engaged all I day yesterday with greatly superior enemy forces alonp; this front from :J Cull, ul i.j Hollcbeke, (a distance of L about ten miles) and finally were com 7 polled to give ground German posts which were holding out southeast of Villers-Bretonneux, on the front south of the Somme after its recapture by the British were cleared up. The statement follows "On the Bailleul -Hollcbeke front after severe fighting lasting through out the day against a greatly superior force, the allied 'roops were compelled compell-ed to give cround and the enemy ob-talned ob-talned a footing on Kemmel hill. Sighting continues in the neighborhood neighbor-hood of Dranoutre, Kemmel and Yier-straat. Yier-straat. "We carried out a successful minor operation during the night west of IfervlUe and captured fifty prisoners and three machine guns. The hostile artillery has been active along our lront from the Lys river to Glvenchy -outh of the Somme hostile pos,s which were holding out southeast of Villers-Bretonneux have been cleared by our troops. Tho enemy's artillery has been active also in this area with gas shells. "On the remainder of the British front there was nothing to report Flanders in Full Tide of Battle. li,V Wajmler.- is. again the scene oi the Full tide of battle arainst Mont Kern-; mel and the other hills forming the ' protecting bastion to the plain east and north of Ypres the Germans are : hurling thousands of troops. Standing of their second defense line and with Mont Kemmel still in their posession, i the British are fighting tenaciously.. L'nable to make appreciable progress pro-gress against the defense of the Brit ish, French and American troops south of the Somme. the enemy swung his attacks to the north. As on Wed-1 nesday his first assaults on the seven mile front from Bailleul to Kemmel to' Wytschaete were successful and the allied troops were compelled to give up their lirst defense line. The tactics of switching attacks is ; not new to the Germans and was per-Bisted per-Bisted in by them in their vain attempt to capture Verdun two years ago After Aft-er the first successful lunce on both ( sides of the Meuse the enemy tried to gain his objective b attacking first on the right bank and then on the i left. Apparently the Germans are trying try-ing the same method by alternating 1 between Picardy and Flanders in at tempts to reach Amiens and wipe out the Ypres salient. It is not improbable the German attacks at-tacks may be intended to cover preparations prepa-rations for an effort some place else but it is significant that they have attacked on the most important sec-1 tors on either battle front. Germans Driven From High Ground. South of the Somme the Germans have been driven from the high ground and village of iller.-,-Bretonneux by the British with the loss of 600 prisoners. pris-oners. Further south the hold Han gaard. On this front heavy artillery duels are in progress. American wounded in the lighting on the French sector from Hangaard ' to Ca-i' I are arrimg in Paris. In the WUevre near Regnieville, five I miles northeast of Selcheprey. where General Pershing's men were attacked i heavily last Saturday, the French have repulsed a strong German attack. Zeebrugge Raid Complete Success. Complete success, it is authoritatively authoritative-ly announced, attended the dramatic and courageous raid into the German submarine base at Zeebrugge The enemy, it is said, will be compelled for some weeks to use Ostend as a base and British can deal more easily with the German submarines. The channel at Zeebrugge was blocked and much damage done to the enemy defense s j and shipping. A changt of wind prevented like sue cess at Ostend, the Germans discover-ling discover-ling the raiders before they had time to begin their allotted task. The importance im-portance of the raid is shown by the fact that Emperor William visited Zeebrugge immediately to ascertain the damage which Berlin insists was slight. The. vice admiral in command at Zeebrugge has been dismissed. LONG RANGE BOMBARDING. PARIS, April 26. The long range boinbai dnicnt of Pari: wae resumed during the night. Up to 6 o'clock, as j far as could be ascertained, nobody had been hurt and the damage done was not appreciable. Heavy Artillery Fighting. PARIS. April 26 Heavy artillery Qgbting south of the Somme is reported report-ed by the war office. The statement follows "South of the Somme violent artillery artil-lery fighting occurred during the night VVe carried out a number of raids at different points on the front, especially es-pecially in the region cast of Lassigny, between the Miette and the Aisne, near Bezonvaux, in the region of (Sparges, in Lorraine and in the Vos-ges. Vos-ges. We look prisoners. "Everywhere else the night was calm" GERMANS BATTLING FOR HILL. BERLIN. Thursday. April 25. The supplementary official statement from the German war office this evening reads: "The army of General von Arnim Is engaged in a battle for Kemmel height. " i |