Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1915-02-09
French Break and Retreat to Second Line Trench Be
 fore Onrushing Germans.
GERMANS PROVE
 GOOD AT MINING
Dig Way Into French Lines and Ex. plOde Bombs, French Barracks Be- ing Saved by MiscalculatiOn, and
 200 Germans Slain.

London, Feb. S.-ln the forest-dotted cockpit of the fighting on the eastern end of the allies line in France, a terrific battle has been raging for two days, and continues with the result still in doubt. Gains of foot are advancing column IS of sufficient inn portance to be made the subject of report, and the side that can lunge forward through the hurricane of shell and rifle fire past the line of waiting bayonels has won great victory-so furious and evenly bal anced is the struggle.
 Bagatelle, held by the French, is the scene of the big battle. German
 forces opened the attack early on
 Sunday morning. Drive after drive
 was made against the French without
 effect
 '! All during the night the artillery
 kept up vigorous cannonade and
 under cover of this fire infantry att tacks were exchanged. French gun ners' replies were effective to the battering administered by the Ger
 man guns. The battle continued all
 night. There was little rest for either , army and when dawn came, the hag-
 gard but determined German infantry again were driven down upon the French trenches guarding the town.
 This was their most vigorous as-
 sault. It was the supreme trial of
 strength, and before the onrushing , massed columns, the French defend- CTS wavered, then broke. The Ger mans swarmed over scattered sections of the first line of trenches, and held them.
 The French, falling back to the sec-
 ond line wOrlSa, braced and held this line, effectively resisting the attacks < which were continued all morning, when the last report of the action
 was sent to Paris.
 | An engagement lacking nothing of .le fury ot the Bagatelle light, though .he numbers engaged were less, was Fought at La Boisselle, in the center.
 Possibly excepting the fighting along s.aBassee, this was the most spectac-
 uiar clash on this section of the
 trop'
 Tunnel to Barracks.
 Turing Saturday night the Germans
 succeeded in tunneling undiscovered
 to . rctnt which they apparently
 thought wos directly beneath the houses used by the French as bar
 racks .p .ke. light of subsequent
 events. 1t was evidently their purpose fo blow ur with mines the barracks in which the Wreuch troops were lodg- ing. but thei" tunneling operations
 miycarried and the mines they laid
 were beneath the road in front of the houses. These were exploded with deafening dteonation shortly before dawn. The explosion opened great fissures along the entire width of the
 front Of the improvised barracks.
 Th:ouxh the smoke of the explosion
 the Germans came charging. expect : ing tu see the barracks in ruins and
 to he able io finish of the survivors. } Into the deep assures the momentum !. of their charge earned them. They were unable to mount the wall of the . far stde Of tho jagged ditch and two l and ous-half companies of them were trapped sn the hole, but they put up } a stiR fight, aud it was not until the , afternoon of Sunday that the French were able to aDlodse them. This done, tue French troops were able,
 undisturbed, to perfect their entrench- . ments and the nssurss torn by the ex' } plosion. Two hundred Germans- } more than . third cf the number en- Y gagged in the charge-wcfe found dead l in the pit or cn it's cage. : The Paris asticial statement tonight also records the capture during last e night of a wood to the north of 3 -Hurlas. In the Champagne n district.