Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1916-03-01
7,;,,o Towns Southeast of fortress 1or Captured Tester
 day by Germans.
FIGHTING GOES ON ~.ss ABOUT DOUAUMONT
c...ns Holding Their Own, But ,,u.,,.h Cain Besieged Are Trap. ..a Cathedral of NOtre Dame
 Is Demolished.

IandOn, Feb. Z9.-Ine GeFmaHS to- day reported the capture of five ,ovns southeast of verdun. They ar, n,eppe. Abeucourt, Blanzee, Mannoel- los and Champion.
 The advance was over a front twelve miles long and represents a gain of from one to four miles in three days.
 It brings the German line on the southeast, at the nearest point, with in five miles of Verdun itself, strengthening the German line and bringing it, sac->eight miles of the front. within two miles of the outer Z defenses of the city.
 The movement marked the great est stride ,yes recorded in the en- circling movement of the crown princess army. It completes about the beleagured city an almost perfect semi-circle, starting at Champneu- vile on the northeast, swinging past For Douaumont on the northwest, < and extending to Champion on the southeast Al no point is this arc of bristling steel more distant than five and one half miles from the heart ; of verdun. Holding their gains on she slope of Pepper hill, in the face of galling fire from the French batteries, and repelling ever-recur- ring. French counter attacks at Fort Douanmont, the attacking Teutons today left clamped the jaws of the huge vice by clearing the wooded heights to the east of the. Ornes- Raudim9cnt highway. .,~. <,s,.
 Germans Weaken. . The five outer forts which protect Verdun on the east are, now within easy range of the German big guns. Before Fort Douaumont. according to the French night communication, the violence of the German onslaught has been broken. Reports of the fighting during the night brought the Flast news Of infantry encounters. Hand to hand fighting in the dark, with the flashes of powder against the snow-clothed hills the only light, they resulted in the repulse ct German efforts to break the French ring about the crumbled fort Within the shattered works the Ger mans still hold their own, but the French assert thai they have the ccnquering Brandenburgers trapped
 In Champagne, the Ger an advance against 'Snippes, from, Somme-p1 through Navarin farm has. been con solidated, though under the greatest difficulties. With the French bat teries ripping great holes ehrougf every German work thrown up, tht French machine guns are pepperlns the pioneers with hail of bullets.
 Teut0ns Menace French
 Communications.
 Here the Germans seriousl' menace the Chalons-Metz railway, b. which the army corps defending Yer dun is supplied. It evidently is th German strategy to cut this. line o supply on the west, while crushln the verdun army by front and fan lhmove ements.
 French estimates of the losses srS N Tered by the 750.OOO men thus Ia 1urled at Verdun are placed at abou 120,00. Red Cross doctors state Sha SO000 wounded of both sides are no' lying on the battle field.
 The German report of. the Frenc casualties gives them as enormous s An Amsterdam report states ths the Germans have lost in killed alon 40.oOO,
 Berlin reports received here | wireless state that the French al removing the big guns from the for' oi Verdun and mounting them in tf rear of the French lines.
 More than million shells. it wtlmated by observers. have bee k nred by rhe Germans in their bon eardment. Unofficial reports at We x state that the big siege howit %sspf the Gerlan batteries ha'
 4ttsred the city of verdun itse
 M historical twelfth century c
 9eenl of Notre Dame. and oth
 mSus structures have been crur