Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-09-04
BRITISH SWEEP
FORWARD ALONG
3OOO-YARD LINE
Capture More Than 5000
Prisoners in Somme
Front Attack
NEAR COMPLIES VILLAGE

~f@fAhAN OSANA ANAfAIhO
LONDON, Sept. L.
German positions over a front OF 300
yards, between the Ancre and Somme Riv
ers have been smashed by the British ant
Jnore than eight thousand prisoners wer'
captured. the War ONCE announced today
British troops penetrated to depth o
500 yards.
Tho village OF Guillemont for which
desperate fighting has been in progress fol
weeks. Is new completely in the hands OF
the British,
The Germans made strong counter-at-
tacks. but were able to gain at only one
point, In the sector of GInchy the British
had TO yield some of the ground they had
won.
PARIS, Sept. 4.
Bad weather has halted the new French
offensive north of the Somme, II was ON
cially announced today.
The French spent last night Improving
their newly captured positions. The Ger
mans made no attempt to recapture the po'
eitions taken by the French yesterday.
German counter.Rttacks on the Vaux'
Chapitre wood, on the verdun front, were
all repused, although they were pressed
home with great determination.
The Allies are now on the outskirts Of
Combles, on the Somme front, and 1t Is be-
lieved that another great push. such as that
launched on Sunday, will put the Anglo
French forces In possession Of the village.
The new positions between Glnchy and
Ciery were strongly organized by the Allied
forces during the night despite the heavy
artillery fire directed upon them by the Ger
mans These positions include the villages
OF Forest and Clery. which were held against
strong German counter-attacks.
The Allied attack resulted in the captui o
or 1000 German prisoners and more than
seventy-fve cannon and machine guns.
The attack flung back large German
forces and succeeded in everything that had
been hoped for 1t. The Germans retired in
disorder and the field is covered with their
dead.
French troops began the attack Just about
noon, after their guns had Numbered all
night and through the morning, smashing
the German trenches and lines of shell
holes North of the Somme the French in.
fantry jumped from their trenches all along
front of nearly four miles, from the region
north of Maurepas to the River Somme.
HAND-To.HAND FIGHTnrG
Across the shell-pitted strip between the
trench lines tore the pollus with what the
French War Office describes as remarkable
dash. French troops from Maurepas took
the village of lie Forest, directly east OF II,
while further to the south the village of
Clery fell TO the French. There was deadly
hand.to-hand fighting in both villages, where
the Germans had made of every cellar a
fort. Whole underground cities had been
dug, with passages for streets and dug
outs for houses, but the French took them
all.
The French troops In lie Forest pushed
further north, and took all the German
trenches from lie Forest to Combles. Be-
tween lie Forest and Clery they passed the
road that connects these towns and took
the German trenches at the other side.
All along the whole French front of at
tack. particularly to the south about Clery
the infantry had to scramble and fight Their
way up slope The troops that took lie
Forest had the longest advance to make
but those who fell were replaced by Sec
ond or a third wave that followed the first,
and between waves ran the nettoyeurs, the
trench cleaners" who descended into the
German dugouts and with their bombs
cleaned OUT the survivors.
BRITISH ALSO PARTICIPATE
BY night the reports began coming in
from all the captured positions, which had
been hidden all day by great clouds of
smoke and dust from machine guns and eX-
ploding German shells Putting these to-
gether roughly, the report reached General
Joffre that 1000 German unwounded pr SON
ers had been taken all along the front, with
more probably to come. In the single sector
of lie Forest IL German cannon were taken
and so machine guns All the booty cannot
be counted until today.
At the same moment that the French |
began their dashing attack the British in |
their left had gone over" their trenches |
and started for the German lines. Their ar
tillery fire had been accurate all the morn |
ing. when the men in the trenches had |
seen the British aeroplanes direct the guns |
where to fire and drive back German ma |
chimes that tried TO interfere.
The British on the extreme right of their |
line, where II meets the French. and the |
French there made the most important ad- |
vance OF the day, an advance that makes |
the fall of Combles the British objective, |
= question Of days. The Allied troops got
into the outskirts of the town. at which
they have been hammering and maneuver-
ing for weeks. There the Germans stopped
them.
CHARGE IN GAS MASKS
FROM trenches in the outskirts Of GuIlle-
mont tie British sent forth thick clouds Of
black smoke. SO thae The Germans in their
trenches could not see them. Then the
British jumped out, and wearing gas masks
dashed for the Germans with the bayonet. |
Long and anxiously the officers waited and |
then came the news that the British had
driven the Germans entirely out of Guille-
mont
The British artillery went to work on
the German lines back of Guillemont again
and more infantry was sent into the cap
tured village. The first troops had pushed
on In the face OF heavy fire from German
machine guns and field artillery and did
not stop until they had thrown the Ger
mans out of all their trenches for 500 yards
beyond the town
Further to the north the British made
progress In the village OF Glnchy, on the
outskirts OF which they had been for some
days, taking the greater part OF the town.
The line from Ginchy south to Guillemont
vas pushed forward as far as the Falfe-
mont farm
Farther to the north the British made an
ether attack, in the region of the LEIPZIG
fedoubt, where the Germans had fortified
Almost every square foot of ground ana
hera trenches were so closely dug that
ana could scarcely nnd his way among
|hen1- They captured several hundred pris-
oners and the reports from other points
Indicate that many have been taken an
along the line.
GERMANS Ann RTIGARIANs