The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1916-05-25
vERDUN WARFA ARE
IN FOURTH MONTH
Worst Battle of War Continues
With Germans Trying to Hold
Trench They Have Taken
French Hopeful.

Continuing their descent on the Ital-
Ian. front the Austrians have made
further progress on the southern Tyrol.
The Vienna war office today announces
that the peak Of the Armantra ridge
has been carried, several additional
villages have been occupied by the
Austrians and more than 5000 more
Italians captured.
Fighting Of the most intense charac-
ter Is in progress in the Deadman's hill
region northwest Of Verdun.
Paris records the repulse of renewed
attacks west of Deadman's hill, and
also the capture Of several block houses
n the Avocourt wood.
The Avocourt wood.
The German steamer Worms, 4,428
tons, is believed to have fallen VIC
tim to allied submarines in the Baltic.
Violent cannonadlng heard in the
Baltic, off the Swedish coast, leads
to a belief that German and Russian
warships have been in an engagement.
The British forces in the Sudan are
reported by Constantinople to have
been completely defeated by tribes
men in Darfur.
Paris. May 23.-The battle OF Yer
dun, the longest and most bitter in
dividual struggle Of the war, enters on
its fourth month today The Germans
are hammering at Deadman's hill,
where the most furious and bloody
fighting Of the three months conflict
has taken place. Clinging desperately
to the trenches that they have wrested
from the French on the lower slopes Of
the hill, the Teutons have hurled $4,000
men, backed by go batteries Of guns
Of all calibers, forward along q long
seven-rnile front from Avocourt wood
to the Mouse In a desperate effort to
Saiza tho cnVataH cIrnpn{f
The Germans have succeeded in
gaining a footing in the French first
line at a cost Of severe losses, but
judging from the experience Of the
past 1t will not be a difficult task for
the French to dislodge them before
they are able to follow up their advan-
tage. That Ine Germans must con-
tinue their tremendous onslaught on
Deadman hill or abandon the idea Of
taking Verdun seems obvious. This
blood soaked summit and it's sister
erainence, Hill 304, form the key OF
the whole system Of Verdun defenses.
The fire from their batteries TANKS
the Douaumont plateau across the
river Without the undisputed pos
session Of this plateu military critics
agree that no attack on Verdun has
any chance of success.
The block houses in AVocourt wood
were abandoned by the Germans.
East of the Mouse infantry fighting
occurred at the Haudremont quarries,
captured yesterday by the French. The
Germans attacked these positions, and
the statement asserts, were repulsed
with heavy losses.
Austrians Withdraw.
Paris, May ga neutral diplomat,
who has just returned from Albania,
is quoted in a dispatch to the Matin
from Athens as saying that the Aus
TRANS have withdrawn $4,000 from AL
bania in the last three weeks. Accord
ing to this diplomat, the Austrians
have left only small attachments to
guard the towns they have occupied,
leaving a garrison Of 500 at Fiera and
600 at Berat. The remainder Of the
troops left in the country are concen-
trated at Durazzo.
The abandonment Of the Albanian
front is said to be due to the impos-
sibility of bringing up supplies.
The statement says the Austrians
are withdrawing their main forces
from Albania, apparently conflicts with
recent dispatches from Athens and
Paris, which stated that the Teutons
were about to launch an attack in force
against Avlona, the only town that re-
mains in the possession of the Italians.
May 10 the Austrians were reported to
have assembled a fleet of $50 trans
ports at Fiume to transport troops and
supplies to DurazZo.