Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1915-07-12
COVETED HILL COUNTRY
IS CAPTURED BY FRENCH
After 120 Days of Fighting, Germans
Are Driven From Command
ing Positions.
LOSSES ARE TREMENDOUS
Upward Of 100000 Of kaisers Sol
diers Killed or Taken Prisoners
in This Sector Since Second Week
in March-Gain Mt SoucheZ.

in This Sector Since Second Week
in March-Gain at Souchez.
ON THE HEIGHTS OF NOTRE
DAME DE LORETTE. NEAR ARRAs,
FRANCE, July 10 (via Paris. July 11).
After battling 120 days for the hill
country between Bethune and Arras,
French forces now hold all the emIn-
ences looking out on the plain Of
Flanders. Lille. Douai and Cambria
Every position along the national road
between Arras and Bethune has been
won except Souchez. and last night
another quarter-mile Of trenches in the
Souchez web was torn away. The
attack was made under parachute
rocket lights. the French burning
blush white and the Germans green
white. covering the scene OF the
conflict with CHASTITY glow.
DESPERATE FIGHTING
ON TEN-MILE FRONT
The most desperate fighting has been
along short ten-milc front from
Arras to Aix-Noulctte, which began
March .. with the taking of a few hun
dred yards of trenches. Every day
since some section OF the German
trenches has been taken, lost or re-
taken.
Each side has employed formidable
artillery, the French guns being some
what the more numerous, and served
with unlimited quantities of high-ex-
plosive shells.
n correspondent of the Associated
Press to-day went through five or six
miles of trenches formerly held by the
Germans, and reconstructed by the
It.hn
to move forward. Upward of 100000
Germans have fallen or been captured
In these trenches, according to the
French. since the second week Of
March. French losses. the correspon-
dent was Informed. while serious, have
been much smaller than the German
There are thickets of little wooden
crosses marking graves between the
trenches. Some Of these graves have
been torn up by shell fire.
Almost every square yard of this re-
gion Is marked by miniature craters.
spots where shells penetrated the earth
without exploding are indicated by
signs bearing the words live she'll"
GERMAN DEFENDERS
SHELTERED IN DUGOUTs
One line of the German works was
just below the summit OF a steep slope.
which. from the nature of the ground,
could not be shelled without danger to
the French position a ,ittle higher up.
Ihe Germans were sheltered in dug
outs. and their French assailants,
sliding or jun'ping down into the
trenches, were shot or bayoneted from
caves. The line finally was taken by
tossing grenades by the basketful into
the trenches, until so many of the do
tenders were killed or wounded that
they were too weak TO resist Every
curve or angle in the miles of laby-
rinthian cuttings has it's story of
tragedy and heroism
In the party which went over this
ground and into the firing trench with
in calling distance of the German lines
with the Associated Press correspon-
dent were Owen johnson, Arnold Ben
nett. Walter Hale. the artist, and
George II. Mar. of the British For
eign Office. AS they approached the
lines shell burst twenty-five yards
away, while others exploded only thirty
or forty yards away. The soldiers
laughed heartily at the embarrassment
of the civilians
The men on the firing line express
the utmost confidence that what they
VI" ses'cro"S OF lhls morning, they
can keep on doing until the war has
been won. They never hear vague, un-
verified reports circulated in Paris,
sometimes of tremendous and impos-
Hible victories or sinister hints of dis
aster. They know what they have done
since March 3. They talk as a matter
of course. of another winter campaign,
because, they say. ii will take another
year TO break the German power
EATING AND SLEEPING
CHIEF OCCUPATIONS
The principal occupations of the SOL
diers when OFF duty are eating and
sleeping The visitor hears more
hearty laughter in an hour at the front
than in p week behind the lines
Extreme watchfulness is exerciel