Evening star., 1916-07-28
'HELL'S CRUC|BLE,' |.
DELV|L[E WOOD, IS
IN BRITISH HANDS
Famous Brandenburgers Are
Driven Out and Two Counter
Attacks RepuIsed. !
RUSSIANS CLEAR FOES N
TRENCHES AT AUBERIVE
Cars Men Operating on Western
Front Score Success in the
Champagne.
..-. -
FRENCH CHECK ASSAULTS
Germans Endeavor to Advance Near
IihonS-Prepar ations for
FRENCH CHECK ASSAULTS
Germans Endeavor to Advance Near
Lihons-Preparation for
Drive on Thiaumont
Work Halted.

LONDON, July 2s, ESQ pm
British troops have captured Del
vile wood in its entirety, a Brit
ish official statement announced
this afternoon. This German
position in the Somme region,
termed by some as ''hell's cruel
ble,' had been defended by the
Brandenburg division, which was
driven out. Two counter attacks
have been repulsed.
Russians accommodating at Au-
berive, in the Campagne, says the
French official statement issued
this afternoon, penetrated the
German trenches and cleared
them with hand grenades. The
Russians took some prisoners.
A German attempt to attack
near Lihons, north of Shaulnes,
was arrested by French infantry
fire.
On the. right bank of the
Meuse, in the Verdun region,
German preparations to attack
Thiaumont work were stopped
by artillery fire.
Two German aeroplanes were
shot down in the Somme region.
Strong British attacks against
the German positions in Foureaux
wood, in the Somme region, broke
down yesterday under the Ger
man fire, says the official state
ment issued today at German
army headquarters.
Great British Shell Fire.
The Germans had been quiet at Del
vile wood because the British made no
infantry attack Tor some days, but all
the while the machine guns had been
rafting and the artillery had kept up
a thunderous drumbeat which before
this offensive would have been referred
to as violent artillery duel.
The British put on Delville wood the
heaviest concentration of shell fire in
a given area ever directed against field
Gea ha
amazed when they computed its VOL
ume per minute in preparing the way
for the infantry. Counting the front a
thousand yards. there must have been
three shells a minute falling on every
yard.
The purpose was to leave nothing
standing, nothing living. Not a single
German sniper in a tree, not single
German machine gun, but was to be
put out of business by the tornado of
blasts. Delville wood has left Trone
wood with a tame reputation.
The British had nearly all the Del
VILE wood after the advance of July
IA but the Germans got an entlade ma
chine gun and shell fire on them and
took possession of the middle of the
wood and of the British dead, who had
fought to the last man. But the Brit
ish kept the southern end of the wood
and the adjoining village of Longueval
AGAINST repeated attacks, raking the
Germans with machine guns and she'll
fire.
When the British infantry advanced
they did not expect to recover all thei
wood but before the charge had fin
shed they had taken all except about
an acre of the northern end. That VAS
Laken today.
The troops engaged around Longue-
val and DelVlle wood, where the fight
ng exceeds in ferocity for the posses
sion of the valuable ground anything
vet seen in the offensive, have been
10th hardened regulars and new army .
,attalions The new army men,, fresh
rom the English drill grounds. when
mt into this "hells crucible" have
,bown the same racial stubbornness
Is the regulars.
mo shell fire could be worse than
he way the teachers had pictured it
O us" said one of the new army men.
We were expecting it all--machine
,uns bombs. sniperS, big shells and
title shells-and SO we were not sur
,rised.
The commander of one famous division
old the men if they were good boys and
ought we'll when they attacked July IA
hey would not be put permanently on
he reserve, but would have another
hance in the offensive. They had a
week of this uninterrupted orgy and
vhen they came out to rest their COM
nander informed them they had made
God and could go back. The dust-caked
eterans cheered this announcement.
"How anybody comes out of Delville
yood alive is a miracle" said an officer
rho had been in the thick of the strug-
le "But | know men who were bowled
Yer five times by shells, knocked down
v branches of falling trees. whose
calps were cut with machine gun bull
Its, and yet came out.
This morning the British found there
hundred Germans, mostly with some
ind of wound, who had survived the
earful bombardment. which had left