OCR Text |
Show Heavy Fire North and Southwest of ! Queant. WITH THE BRITISH ARMY IN FRANCE, 12:31 p. in. The enemy was In force at the last ' reports lo the southwest and to the north of Queant. From the xidges' he "was pouring n heavy 'machine gun firo'at the British who were returning the fire and gain-1 ing ground at the same time. 1 On the Somme the British are driv-1 ing in the direction of the Canal du , Nord where the Germans have erected wire. Their trendies here, however,: hav only been half dug, it is rumored.1 The Germans, it seems lo be ex- peeled, will offer determined resistance resist-ance along this line as they are now doing in front of it and then retiro back of the Canal, if necessary. With i their lines at the canal in such an em- I bryonic state, however, little protec-I tion will be afforded the enemy should he be forced to lake refuge behind them. Thousands Are Wounded. On tho. northern half of the Dro-1 court-Queant battle front' there were some 3000 prisoners in the cages last night. Thousands more had been taken to the. hospitals wounded, while prob-j ably more than 2000 more captures have been effected on the southern half of the front. Tti nnn nllr.,i nlnri llira lino nf lmltl.1 four comparatively fresh. German 1 visions and the remnants of four other German divisions were lighting against) three British divisions. An officer fron one of these enemy divisions which was the Second guard lescrve. said that his division had been in the fighting fight-ing for more than a week and that io effectives would number loss than a thousand men. In his battalion only himself and. twenty -ifour men survived, ho declared, adding thnt the German losses had been heavier than any they had previously suffered. There is every sign that the enemy is hurrying his retirement to get behind be-hind what is left of his defensive line. This new line of defense that he is expected to take up behind the Canal du Nord is not considered very strong and is too near Douai and Cambrai lo be comfortable to the enemy. As far as learned no organized counter-attacks have been developed by the Germans but on the extreme British left determined opposition is! developing. J |