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Show Great Value Placed on British Offensive. Of-fensive. BITTER FIGHT RAGING Allied Troops Gaining Ground at Various Points. (By the Canadian Press.) PARIS, Aug. 27 French military critics pay a tribute to the great value of the present British operations, especially es-pecially in its pinning down of huge enemy forces. They point out that Bapaume could have been taken two days ago but the British prefer to. maneuver ma-neuver the Germans out of it. WITH THE BRITISH ARMY IN FRANCE. Aug. 27. (11 a. m.) In the face of a strong German counter-attack the British fell back to the edge of Longueval. In the course of the night the New Zealanders swept around Bapaume at the north and reached the railway just north of the Bapaume-Cambrai road. Germans Offering Stiff Resistance. Tho Germans are offering stiff resistance re-sistance in the neighborhood of Thilloy. Thil-loy. to the south of Bapaume. Reports have been received from tho advanced lines that British patrols pa-trols have again entered the outskirts of Bapaume and that there has been street fighting between the British and the Germans on the edge of the town. Tho British have ponotr'aled the Hindenburg line at ono point to the cast of Heninel which is between Bapaume Ba-paume and the Scarpe river, and hard fighting is reported to be in progress here. The British advanced lines are now reported to be east of Monchy-le-Preux. German rear guards arc fighting to retain their hold on Pelves Pel-ves on the south bank of the Scarpe. the British having reached tho edge of the town- North of the Scarpe progress is being be-ing made by the British on both sides of the road to Douai. As Halg's forces advanced south of the river the Germans soon found ihat the ground north of the stream was extremely dangerous. Here they are being forced back, leaving their renr protected protect-ed with a large number of machine guns and arc employing the same tactics tac-tics that they generally are using along tho rest of the battle front. French Troops Advance. PARIS, Aug. 27. French troops advanced ad-vanced this morning in the region of St. Mard, southwest of Roye, after having repulsed a number of enemy counter-attacks in that sector, according accord-ing to the official statement Issued at the war office today. They have captured cap-tured 1100 prisoners including two battalion commanders, the statement snys. East of Bagneaux, north of the Aisne tho French have advanced their line about three-quarters of a mile, tho statement says. German counter-attacks were repulsed in this region. The statement reads: "South of the Ayre French troops accentuated their progress this morning morn-ing in the region of St. Mard after having repulsed a number of enemy counter-attacks. We have taken more than 1100 prisoners during the combats. com-bats. Of these thirty-six are officers, two of whom are battalion commanders. command-ers. "Between the Oise and the Aisne, German counter-attacks west of Chav-Igny Chav-Igny broke down last evening. Thirty prisoners remained In our hands. In tho region east of Bagneaux wo have advanced our line about 1200 meters. "During the night there were lively artillery duels between the Ailctlc and the Aisne." |