Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-04-02
FRENCH HOLD SMALL PART
OF THEIR, FORMER POSITIONS
Correspondent Reveals Progress of the Ger
man Armies In Great Battle Which
RACES About Verdun.

HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY
OF THE GERMAN CROWN PRINCE
BEFORE vERDUN, March 81. via Ber-
lin and London. April German ar
tillery is playing heavily on the north
mark the site of the burning suburb
behind Forts Belleville and Frofde-
terre. set afire by the bombardment of
these two forts. which bar ingress to
the city along the east bank of the
Mouse.
The Associated Press correspondent
has made an inspection Of the ground
gained by the Germans on the Verdun
front in the fortnight since the last
previous visit of the correspondent. On
the previous occasion the Germans had
to the outer girdle Of forts and had
carried Douaumont and the adjoining
redoubts. The French then retained
the west bank of the river for a dis
lance of three miles north of the line
OF Douaumont and were maintaining a
harassing artillery fire from the heights
on this bank against the German flank
French from this region before the
German attack against the fortress
could proceed
Hold Only Narrow Strip.
This has been accomplished. OF the
old positions the French now hold only
a narrow tongue of land between Dead
Mans hill and Avocourt wood This
position is naturally strong. with Hill
No. 3O4 as the backbone and two forth
court at the ends. But from the intense
artillery fire falling upon it today from
three sides it appeared that the French
retain 1t only by grace of the Germans,
and must abandon 1t whenever an earn
est attack is delivered.
French guns are no less active than
the German. although their fire Is more
scattered. This is because the task of
the French gunnerS is to search out
German batteries hidden over the entire
landscape and restrict their activity
as much as possible. The French gun
ners seem to be performing their task
well. They know the position Of many
batteries and shoot with uncomfortable
enced personally when a shell dropped
squarely in the battery by which he
was standing.
quickly Find Range.
They wasted only three shells in OBJ
tanning the range. Two of these were
third landed right among the guns, but
the softened clay soil swallowed it and
smothered its explosion, throwing
masses of dirt on all sides. but not
harming the gunners. who at the last
1od NH t~t@ he
shelters that had been dug out on the
hillside.
An officer from the headquarters of
the crown prince explained to the cor
respondent the operations leading to
the occupation of the region west of
the river. The French positions here.
from which the German operations on
the east bank had been subjected to a
thanking fire, were on Goose hill and
in Cumieres wood, with strongly for
in the villages of Regnieville and
Bethincourt. Every house had been
converted into a miniature fortress by
walling the cellars with masonry and
cement and providing embrasures for
machine guns and rifles. The position
tected by the flooded river
Flank Attack Decided On.
ed heavy losses in charging up the
steep slopes of the Goose ridge and
Dead Mans hill, so the German leaders
determined to attempt to flank at
tack. surprise crossing was COM
pletely successful. Several columns
were thrown across the river and
Goose ridge was carried. Regnieville
was surrounded and the French gar
surrendered 1of
The first heavy resistance was en-
countered in the ravine and in Cum
ieres wood The resistance was finally
broken and the defenders. whose es-
fire Of shrapnel behind the wood, were
killed or captured almost to a man.
fighting desperately to the last The
French counter attack was delivered
too hurriedly, only three battalions
participating, instead of a brigade as
ordered by Gen. Petain.
Carry Dead Mans Hill.
The Germans then carried Dead
Mans hill. The attack here then
ceased and was transferred to Avo-
court wood. This attack succeeded in
the first rush. The French now hold
only the sacklke position two and a
half miles wide and of about the same
depth. containing Hill No s04. The
contents of the sack are expected to
pass into German possession when the
period of artillery preparation has
ended.
During the day the correspondent
had an opportunity of interviewing a
large number of French prisoners
in Avocourt wood. They were
surprised by the German tactics, which
were based on artillery fire Of such
precision that the Germans were able
to start their charge while the artillery
was still playing on the French
trenches. and to cover the greater part
of the intervening ground before the
guns shifted their range further back
from the commanding height near the
bank of the Mouse.
Surveys Battlefront.
The Associated Press representative
was able today to survey the whole
north of Verdun. The back
ground Of the panorama was the burn
ing city of Verdun. with its squatty
VERDUN.