Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1916-09-20

After severe fighting on the Somme
front yesterday, says today's OFF,
cial German report, the German
troops were forced back through
the villages of Cource!ette, Martini
puich and Flers. The town of
Combles. the statement adds. was
held by the Germans in the face Of
strong British attacks.
London. Sept. 1S-As a result of their
offensive north Of the Somme. begun
yesterday morning along the six-mile
front from north of Combles to beyond
the POziere-B road, the British
are holding the villages of Cource!ette,
Martinpuich and Flers, the war office
this afternoon.
British Front in France. Sept. 49,
(via London Army officers univer-
sally are speaking of Friday as the best
day for the British army since h of
fensive began O the Somme front.
With the exception of July 1, the attack
begun yesterday morning was the most
extensive of any in the 10 weeks of the
battle. For the first time new armored
cars OF ingenious pattern, suitable for
crossing trenches and shell holes, COM
peted with the infantry as the British
swept down from the ridges to the
lower ground tovar Bapaume. At this
writing, the British are beyond the viii
lage of Flers. which they took early in
The morning and are established at
M~artinpuich and Courcelette.
Flooding Work Ends.
The slow plodding work of recent
weeks. which included the taking of
Glnchy and Guillemont, had for it's OBJ
)ect control of all the high ground from
the region of Thiepval to the junction
with the French on the light. The
fought hard for every foot Of
II. Delville, or Devil's wood. High wood
and the rib Of earth which the windmill
crowned beyond Pozieres have been
STEPPED with blood of men fallen there
IN their long stand under the heaviest
orgy of shell fire in the history of war.
as experts agree as German wrestled
Win triton, not for a piece of farm
land, but for military and human
mastery.
Armored Car Surprise.
The work of the new armored cars
In cooperation with. the British infan-
Try IN their charges in yesterdays sue
cessful attack is the one theme Of the
1aik throughout the army today.
me IDEA was so good when it was
soffered," said a staff officer. that we
a some built, and the way they have
gone over the German trenches and
have enfiladed them with machine gun
IRE is some return for the surprise the
gave us with their gas at
SN>'' ~ NV 411SC all vi i ores.
Evidently the British were able TO
Keep the building of these cars entirely
secret and the first that the Germans
Knew or their existence was when in
the misty dawn yesterday morning
they came %trundling across shell era
down many small trees on their way
toward the German trenches on the
second line and ever to the third line.
Inc return to earth of the icthyosau-
rus or d%lnosaur, spouting bullets from
their nostrils. could not have been more
amazing. The tanks" is the slang
word the army staff has applied to
these strange creations of machinery.
put they look less like tanks than any
tnlng else in the world. 1t is hard to
say what they Dol like. They have
been compared both to armadilios and
measuring worms and to MANY other
we.rd creeping or crawling objects Of
natural history. A mar of wars fur
ret crossing fields. in and out Of gull
leys and through fences, would present
d spectacle resembling their progress.
Give Soldiers Laugh.
During the days preceding the at
tack as they moved up to the front and
the soldiers gazed at them, the risabili-
ties of all n were tickled. All sorts
OF questions were ~propounded. "Would
the thing stand when 1t was hitched-
and what was it fed?" Which was it's
s"AA anu III us mead :. All events
1t was n steel jointed incarnation OF
military secrecy. Spectators laughed at
it. but with true British sporting in
stinct hoped it would at least have a
sporting chance.
Last night wounded men back from
the line forgot their pain and what part
their battalion played during the battle
in telling what the tanks did. Notes
were compared between the action of
our and your" tank. Cooperating
with the infantry action by p~rearrange-
ment the grotesque creatures PLAYED
the part set for them under the control
of their invisible crews. which were
their brain centers. Some soldiers said
their battalions had nothing more to do
than harvesters who gather sheaves
following a reaper and binder raked
with fire.
British army reports never had a
stronger passage thar one saying that
100 Germans had surrendered to a
'tank". unless it was the one reporting
that the tank had been seen from an
aeroplane making it a through the
main streets of the village of Flers fol-
lowed by cheering British soldiers. A
staff officer spoke Of one having
stopped to browse at the edge of a wood
before continuing to advance.