Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-09-16
GREAT BRITISH DRIVE THRILLING:
DOGGED PERSISTENCE WINS
Ludicrous Looking Motor Cars, Sun Brown
ed Troops and Huge Guns Hew Way
to Success North of Somme

BRITISH FRONT IN FRANCE. Sep
tember 16. ! am, via London.-Army
officers universally are speaking of
Friday as the best day for the British
arms since the offensive began on the
Somme front. With the exception of
July /. the attack begun yesterday
morning was the most extensive of any
in the ten weeks Of the battle. For
the first time new armored motor cars
OF ingenious pattern, suitable for cross
ing trenches and shell holes. competed
with the infantry as the British swept
down from the ridges to the lower ground
British are beyond the village of Flers,
which they took early in the morning,
and are established in Martinpuich and
CourceIlette.
Germans Fight Hard.
The slow. plodding work of recent
weeks, which included the taking Of
Ginchy and Guillemont, had for it's OBJ
ject control of all the high ground
from the region of Thiepval to the
junction with the French on the right
foot of it. Delville. or Devils wood:
High wood and the rib of earth
which the windmill crowned beyond Po-
Zieres have been stepped with blood
of men fallen there in their long stand
under the heaviest orgy of shellfire in
the history of war, as experts agree,
as German wrestled with Briton, not
for piece of farmland. but for mill
tary and human mastery.
P11Sh Taroelu Down ui11
The British push was largely down
hill. They had behind them the high
ground, whose slopes give them shell
ter for their guns. and whose crest
gives them observation for their artil-
lery fire. Evidently the Germans did
not expect the attack, considering that
the offensive was over and that the
British would settle down for the win
ter in their new and advantageous
positions. Never before. proba bly,, have
more guns been playing over the same
length of front than along the six miles
where the British made their advance
on July 1, and where they have con-
tinued their offensive with phlegmatic
and dogged persistence.
The Germans kept on bringing I'm
guns until now they have 1000 in this
short sector. The Associated Press cor
respondent, moving over the region of
tHe devastated villages and Shell-tOrn
earth. intersected by new roads, saw on
Thursday how enormously the British
had increased their own artillery
Guns Are Kept Busy.
tanned and weather beaten were
the gunners. after their ten weeks of
work. There were lines and clusters
and parks of guns. Rows of batteries
were firing with something of the
regularity of mechanical workmanship
of the needles of loom weaving cloth
Alongside each other were British and
French batteries. The gunners of
neither ally could speake the language
of the other. yet both were going on
with their parts according to charted
instructions. At midnight the corre-
the guns, which were going on with
their night shift of >gunners. whose
figures were Illuminated by flashes
Except for the guns, which know no
rest, the army seemed silent and asleep.
for the most part. Everybody and
everything was in place and ready, in
cluding those strange grotesque new
armored cars, which were to have their
baptism of Are in the morning.
"Battle Is Great Teacher"
I'VE keep on learning. we of the new
army" said one of the young officers,
"and with every show we do a little
better. Battle is the great teacher"
"And the guns never stopped their
ear-racking noise from daylight to
darkness, and darkness to dawn. Now