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Show DISASTROUS DAY . FOR THE HUNS: Crown Prince Rupprechtj Throws in Men to Be Mowed Down. WITH THE BRITISH ARMY IN ' FRANCE. Aug. 23. 3:40 p. m. (By the Associated Press) Victorious on a battlofront of twenty -three miles extending ex-tending from the Cojeul river on the1 north, across the Ancro and Somme rivers almost to Lihons, tho Third' and Fourth British armies under Gen -1 erals Byng and Rawlinson at mid -afternoon were vigorously following up their successes of today, which apparently ap-parently has been one of the most disastrous dis-astrous days ever experienced by the Germans. The enemy lost wide stretches of ground, numerous towns, thousands of men made prisoner and largo quantities quan-tities of materials and guns. Ho also again has had heavy casualties. Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria, the German commander, has thrown his men in before the advancing British Bri-tish armies in an effort to iUnve off I the inevitable, but only to have them .moved down again and again by 'storms of metal which poured from Ithe British guns. One entire enejny battalion was annihilated during the fighting. Dead Germans Everywhere Dead Germans in great numbers aVe scattered everywhere over the battlefield. bat-tlefield. As an example -500 enemy dead were observed this morning on one small piece of ground over which the battle had swept. With all this fierce fighting and notwithstanding the fact that tho British Bri-tish at many places have fought over open ground against an enemy protected pro-tected in "pot holes" and strong" points of other kinds, the British losses everywhere ev-erywhere seem to have been extraordinarily extra-ordinarily light. This probably is due to the confusion the Germans find reigning behind their lines as they are fighting a losing battle which for them hourly grows more disastrous. Crown Prince Rupprecht today had strengthened his line at many places but this instead of slopping the British Bri-tish simply meant that the Germans suffered bigger losses. I British Upset Enemy Plans The fighting to the south began in the night, when strong British forces assailed Gomiecourt just a few min-1 utcs before the Germans had anticipated antici-pated launching an attack. Comic ' court was British at daylight. As it happened the British upset all the enemy en-emy plans and, after killing manv Germans and capturing 500 in the town of Gomiecourt along they went on. At last reports they were push ' ing ahead steadily. Gomiecourt by reason of Its terrain' apparently was considered ihe pivot of a turning movement for, once hav-1 ing taken it the. British sent troops, swinging down south In the direction of Bapaume. The Germans on this position of the battlofront were badly disorganized. There were Germans alii over the place but they seemed to, have no idea of tfounter-altncks. Some apparently did not even know exact-! ly where they were. Airplanes Bomb Headquarters The fighting south of Gomiecourt I today was especially severe. Incl- dentally this movement cut in around' the rear of Achiet LeGrand. At tho' I same time the British here, having -j launched another frontal attack on the enemy's stronghold, were again In! I i hard fighting. While the hattle was I rasing here British planes bombed or used machine guns. Several direct hits were made on a building at the rear of which were a number of touring tour-ing cars. Apparently it was a German Ger-man headquarters. South of Achiel LeGrand the British Bri-tish did not start today's operations so i?nrly. The New Zoalanders here stopped work to let a German counter-attack develop. They "played dead" until the infantry was almost on top of them. Then they put down a heavy machine gun barrage just at the rear of the Germans, who surrendered sur-rendered in a body rather than he killed in their tracks. At about that time an airplane reported re-ported the Germans had disappeared from their positions northwest of St. Leger and between that town and Hamolincourt and that the fighting British found time to cheer hearitly. Apparently the Germans, rather than suffer moro here where they have met with some of their heaviest losses, decided to get out. This locality lo-cality was one of the places where I the Germans had doubled their strength. The fighting to the south began in the night. This happened just north of Mirau-mont. Mirau-mont. Many of the prisoners were non-commissioned officers. All appeared ap-peared Klad they were taken. When asked about the Austrlans tho prisoners pris-oners expressed the greatest contempt for their allies as soldiers saying they were no good whatever. Slightly to the south the British have crossed the Ancre river and started in the general direction of Courcellette Already they are reported re-ported to be southeast of lrandcourt. Tills move menaces from the rear the German stronghold of Thiepval, which is an old fortress. At Albert the British pushed forward for-ward toward Tara hill, at the badk of that town. An airplane report of about noon said the British troops held the entire position. About the same time German shells starA-d breaking on Tara while British shrapnel shrap-nel could be seen bursting some distance dis-tance on the other side of it, showing show-ing where the enemy had been driven. driv-en. Considerable numbers of prisoners prison-ers were taken in this locality. The British troops seem to be progressing pro-gressing well, up the road from Albert to Bapaume. Welsh troops are participating par-ticipating in the fighting their neighborhood. neigh-borhood. South of Albert, Meaulte appears to be in British hands, having been cap turcd early in the day. Thence the line extends southeasterly, with a break where the Germans last evening eve-ning managed to take Happy Valley, just northwest of Bray, by throwing in fresh troops of the Twenty-fifth division, which apparently were brought up for this purpose. Germans Suffer Severely The Germans suffered severely here during the first attack. The fighting was very heavy. Since then the Germans Ger-mans have been constantly heavily fired upon. Happy Valley is a shambles. Its name belies it. South of the Somme tho Austral ians were most successful in the part they playod in today's battle. They easily attained all their objectives and , apparently hold Chuignolls, Chuigne? j and Herleville and are pushing eastward east-ward of these villages a little dis- ! tance to make sure of holding them. j In this region thirty-three German officers and 1.500 men of other ranks I j are made prisoner. Eleven of the I , captured officers were from one regl-nient. regl-nient. U The Germans offered heavy resis- f j tance at Chuignolls, but with the as- f sistance of tanks, the Australians fli hammered through the enemy and - jj swept on, leaving ihe town and its i environs filled with dead Germans j On the ridge south of this town ? there also was fierce fighting which almost reached the hand -to hand stage before the Australians made it ! clear to the Germans that they were i not to be stopped and shoved over the ridge and onward. i Guns Roar All Along Line Just now the large numbers of guns are roaring away all along the line. n At some places they are steadily hammering, ham-mering, at others It is rolling up into intense drumfire, telling Avhcrc th j fighting is t;oing on. Tho German i shells seem to be coming in from long -dlblances. Evidently their guns ! have been moved back for safely. The f German artillerymen apparently hae not the greatest confidence in the ability of their comrades in the infantry in-fantry to ward off .tho blows being ; delivered against them. , nn I. |