The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-12-17
ASSOCIATED PRESS REPRESENTATIVE
 DESCRIBES FIGHT
Tells of How on Signal of Church Bell French Alt tack, Resulting in a
 Great Victory

Pepper IIlll, British Front in France, Friday. December 15.-(By a stan corre- spondent of the Associated Press. via London. December 15.)--A short. sharp fight today brought the third smashing victory to the French during the period of the last three months Large groups of prisoners are still arriving The total count reads 7500. (The last French off cial statement says the number of pris- oners exceeds 5000 One division alone captured more than 1aOo Germans within an hour. More than 80 large and small and many others are known to be buried.
 The villages of vacherau-ville, Louve- mont and BesonvauN and Hardaumont wood now are in French hands.
 The front over which the offensive was executed was 10 kilometres long. When the fighting ceased, owing to the dark ness, the French advance had extended an average of three Kilometres along the whole front, at various points rushing batteries, whose retreat was hindered by the bad condition of the ground.
 The battle began at 10 o'clock in the morning with the left flank of the French opposite vacherauville and the right flank on Fort Vaux The correspondent of the Associated Press watched the en- gagement from a dominating height,
 BELL WAS SIGNAL
 As the church clock struck the hour, every French gun opened a storm of steel, placing every shot immediately behind the German front line. Meanwhile the French infantry made one of it's charac- teristic dashes and reached the village of Vacheraville, where. utilizing the new method of infantry attack, they drove the Germans from house to house until the village was entirely in their hands.
 Advancing beyond the village, the French attacked German trench known as "Behmann's Bowl" which was pierced after a hard fight and its occupants made prisoner. Then up the slopes of Pepper Hill the infantry men could be seen making methodical progress until at exactly an hour from the start the twin crests of this height had been swept clear of Germans, and the rockets announced the French were established there.
 TOOK ENEMY IN REAR
 In the meantime the Germans. on ths opposing slope, had been taken In the rear by an extemporaneous French flank movement. The surprise was so great that both the infantrymen and the gun nels were made to flee. and French avia- tcrs turned the flight into a rout by descending to within a hundred yards of the earth and emptying band after band of machine gun cartridges into the dis orderly crowd of which those remaining ahve surrendered.
 Making their way along the valley be- hind Pepper Hill, the French approached and took Louvemont with similar and untiring brilliance, in which they were supported by another French wave that had fought its way through the entangle- u.ents of strongly fortified field works iii Caurieres wood, just about the cen ter of the line
 ANOTHER ADVANCE
 In front of Douaumont the advance vas equally rapid. but on the right flank the forward movement encountered strong opposition in Hardaumont wood which was not overcome until late in the aft ernoon. when Besonvaux redoubt, abou,
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