The Hawaiian gazette., 1916-07-04

French Join Big
Offensive With
Good Results

tighter than ever. Nothing was al.
lowed to leak out regarding the ac.
.tivity on the Western front. Even
the Berlin dispatches told little.
They reported only increased artil.
lery activity on the part of the
British, and the repulse of raiding
parties here and there.
Great Offensive Begins
Yet all this time the British com
mander was assembling huge mass
.es of men and munitions in the
rear of his lines. He had already
completed a net work Of railroad
tracks to enable him to handle sup
plies of shells and reinforcements
of men with greater ease. These
tracks reached to every important
point back of his line, and at
various concentration points he
ammassed vast quantities of shells.
When all was ready he increased
his artillery preparation, taking
care to scatter his fire over differ
ent sectors, so as to deceive the
Teutons as to the point at which
he intended to strike. The section
around Ypres was fercely bonn.
barded. La Bassee sector was at
tackled. Hulloch and other points
were shelled extensively.
At last General JOffre gave the
word, and yesterday morning at
sun rise the time for the offensive
came. Thousands upon thousands
.of cannon of all calibres opened
fire, batteries taking their turn in
relays. For days a million shells
a day had been fired against the
German lines. Yesterday morning,
on the seven-mile front, it is esti-
mated that half that number were
fired in ninety minutes, the length
of time the bombardment lasted be.
fore the guns suddenly quit anil
the infantry, though stunned by
the noise, leaped from the trenches
and raced for what was left of the
German lines.
Big Guns Do Their Work
The guns had done their work.
There were no first-line trenches in
many cases. There were no barb
wire entanglenents. There were
no Germans in some parts of the
line-Only a mass of dust. Of shat
tered concrete, of torn limbs, of
broken rifles, and the sunken ditch
where the trenches had run through
the chalk-hilIs of the Peronne sec
tor.
Some reports say that the Brit
ish infantry advanced singing, tnd
there were none to stop them. But
this is not true of the whole of the
front or which the attack was
made. In some places the Ger
mans stuck. Fricourt, east of AL
bert, and one of the stronghClds on
the German front, held out, shat
tered though its defensive system
was by the terrific .bombardment.
But it cannot hold out long. The
British have surrounded it, aecorll-
ing to the last reports, and have
taken Mametz, due east of it, and
Montauban, northeast of Mametz,
more than five miles east of the
line they started from in the morn
ing. Contamination, was holding out
last night against furious attacks
of the British troops, but La BOs-
selle had been surrounded and
forced to capitulate to the Austria
liam and Canadian troops.
Hard Shedding In North
North of the Ancre valley, where
the artillery found difficulty in
reaching the German defenses and
tearing down the barbwire de-
lenses, the infantry had hard sled
ding. 1t bro e through the Ger
man first lin ) and gained the Sec
ond-line trenches, but was unable
to hold them and was compelled to
fall back, However, in this sector,
it took 2000 unwounded German
prisoners.
AS a whole the British advance,
made with comparatively small loss
to the attackers and with heavy
losses to the Germans, forms a deep
bulge in the British front-a bulge
with irregular outlines. In places
it extends into the German posi-
tons for mere than five miles,
while in other places it probes not