The Washington times., 1915-09-30
FRENCH SEIZE NEW
LINES IN CHAMPAGNE
Germans Open Violent Bonn.
bardment Of Allied Lines
East Of Souchez.

Continued from First PageO
heavy artillery fire. especially directed
at their flank.
AviatOrs Aid Attack.
THE second line positions taken by
our forces In the Champagne are frn'ly
ma maintained. South Of Ripon eastern
Champagne) Nour troops have enlarged
the conquest of positions on the first
German lines. by taking q fraction Of
a.. Important works known as the fort
Of Defeat
Despite the unfavorable atmospheric
conditions. the French air fleet bonn
barded German communications At sew
eral points. dropping bombs on stations
In the valley of the Suippe. at Bazin.
court. Wranerville. Pont Favorger. ana
st. Hilaire and also on marching col
umn Of the enemy near Somme-fS
I'm the Artois region the enemy mas
east Of Souchez."
Closely linked In a great combined At
tack British and French are rolling up
against the German lines, breaking
through at some sectors. and being halt
objectives are Lens, the Vtmy hei8nts.
and positions on which the drive on
Douai must depend.
The Germans are attacking at several
points IN new efforts to draw on allied
troops from the Artois and the Cham
pagne - relieve the heavy pressure on
their lines.
Slaughter Appalling.
Men are going down to slaughter by
the thousands in the bloody combat
raging west Of Lens. The Germans are
counter attacking. battling desperately
to hold their positions on this vitality
important front. Every charge OF the
Anglo French soldiers Is met by a
steady rush OF bullets and rain or
shra pnel. Bomb fighting before the
enemys wire entanglements In the past
three days has been the most furious q
the war.
The first wounded officers from the
Lens ba tile to arrive here reported that
In the combined onslaughts against the
German works. French and British d.
visions often became hopelessly mixed
British tommies found themselves hbht-
Tar from their own lines. Whole regi-
ments were swallowed up In the smoke )
fields and hills were blotted from sight
and the rocking of guns made 1t impos-
sible to hear commands.
Yells Give Direction.
I'VE got our directions at the start OF
4 charge and just tried to keep running
on that way" said one French officer.
who was brought to Paris with q wound
In the head.
ut was impossible to see through
the dust and smoke after we had gone
a little way. A bullet or bit OF shrap-
nei would hit a man on the arm and
he would spin around and maybe
star. off In the wrong direction.
"But when we got close up to the
entanglements of tho 'bocher.' we
always knew right where we were.
The din OF the guns was great but II
couldn't drown out the yells OF the
men fighting their way through the
wire. Every time there was fresh
yell we knew another group had
broken through and were giving the
'boches' the steel"
The last official statement from the
war office reported that Hill No. l40.
four miles southwest Of Lens. Is be-
ing strongly held by the French who
captured the height during Tuesday
nights fghting. By drawing guns
up the western slope. the Fench can
begin the bombardment OF the rail-
way town.
The British are driving hard at Lens
over the Bethune road. but are meet