The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-10-06
HUGE QUANTITIES OF AMMUNITION
 USED BY FRENCH
French and English Lose Heavily in Advance Along 2O-Mile
 Front

Lille, France, October 2.-(By courier.
 via London. October 5.)-In view of the tremendous preparations, the
 amount of ammunition used and the
 number of troops employed in the
 great attack along a front of less than 20 miles from LaBassee to a point south of Arras, the Anglo-French gains are not considered to have been inn portant.
 The most important British gain was south of LaBassee canal. in an easterly
 and southeasterly direction, where the Germans were thrown back from two- thirds of mile to nearly two miles along front between a mile and a half to two miles and half in extent. This was the main British attack and Is declared to have been carried out by five divisions against four in- fantry regiments and one battalion of sharpshooters.
 In addition to their principal gains, the French took some ground north
 west of Arras near Beaurains, which
 though utterly destroyed Is still part of the German lines.
 Along the entire front. as in Cham pagne, the attack was preceded by a terrible artillery fire, which began September 23, and increased steadily
 in intensity until the morning of the 25th, when the attack commeIced. Germans Resort to Gas Before attacking. the British sent alternate waves of asphyxiatng gas and dense smoke across the field, first releasing the gas for about 10 minutes and then the smoke for a slightly
 shorter time and repeating this pro
 cedure several times. It was impossi-
 ble to see tree 20 feet distant through
 the smoke clouds.
 Many old British line regiments took
 part in the attack, but there were a great many regiments of the new Kitchener army. Some of the British
 who were taken prisoner came under
 fire for the first time in carrying out
 tho main attack
 The German troops in places recap
 tured the lost ground. This was especi- ally true east of Givenchy, where two companies which had broken through the German lines had been driven out or exterminated by o'clock These counter attacks were carried out in almost every instance with hand grenades, as nearly all the fighting took place directly in the trenches, which were too narrow for the use of the bayonet
 British Resort to Gas The German division corps and army commanders unite in declaring that the French and British losses were great and that the German losses, while heavy, were still small, taking into consideration the character of the 1 fighting
 The attack was by no means in the nature of surprise; the tremendous bombardment had given notice of it's coming.
 1 In various trips along the front the has never before encountered such high spirits among the German troops as prevail in this army Neither officers
 nor men exhibit any signs. of anxiety, or even uneasiness about the situation.
 The feeling appears almost one of ela- | tion.
 1 British prisoners with whom the correspondent conversed also were in | excellent condition mentally and physi- 1 cally and their equipment was of a nature which was commented on ire quently by German officers as lux | urious."
 The British prisoners appear to be far superior physically and are better equipped than the French. great number of the French were wearing their new steel helmets, many of which
 showed marks of shrapnel bullets and
 in some instances rifle bullets, which
 would have been fatal without the
 headgear