El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1917-04-14


Much Progress Reported
! The text of the statement follows:
! The village of Fsyet. one mile
1 northwest of s.. Quentin was captured
/ last night after sharp fight.
/ on the high ground east OF Lever
Suier- we captured the important pO-
Z sitiOns Of Ascension farm and Grand
/ Priel farm. We also made progress
north of the Bapaume-Cambrai road
/ in the direction of Queant
North OF the Scarpe our constant
pressure compelled the enemy to yield
: further ground We seized Vimy sta
: ton. La Chaudiere and the enemy's
position at FOsse No. six and Buquet
, mill between Givenchy-E n-Gohelle and
Angres.
German Raid Fails.
The guns taken from the enemy in
J this area included four howitzers eight
{ inchers
The ground gained in our recent
operations now links up with the po-
, sitiOns wrested from the enemy in the
battle Of LoOs and include the Double
Grassier-
The enemy attempted a raid east OF
Loos during the night but was driven
off"
It's Open Warfare Now.
British Headquarters in France. April
lit is not without difficulty that
one comes to a realization that semi
open warfare has replaced the old
deep trench fighting on the greater
part OF the British front 1t is difficult
even for the fighting men actually to
grasp the situation.
The Germans possibly feel the change
more than any one else. for above ali
things they love their underground
comfort The Germans we're the first
10 transfer fighting TO bitches and they
are reluctantly giving up that style Of
warfare
Germans Like Cover.
The deep concerted dugouts and tun-
nels along the old front were the only
protection the Germans had against
Jhe ever Increasing British gun fire and
every time they get an opportunity to
pause now they Immediately begin to
dig In They take to cover as If by
second nature The British have al
ways commended that the German dug
outs sOftened the men who congregated
in them always and could only be kept
with difficulty in the open trenches.
British Like Open Tactics.
Open field tactics have been 4 par:
OF the training Of the new British army I
ever since il began in 1914. There has I
been some criticism Of that system from Z
tine 10 time on the ground that the 4
var would always be fought from !
trench TO trench but for the last few
months the British army in France has
been drilled in open tactics almost 4
daily The results Of these training
methods have been apparent in the last !
few days and will undoubtedly prove I
still more valuable in the wider opera
tons which are unquestionably coming 1
Outwitted Crack German Regiment.
The correspondent saw a bit Of field 4
maneuvering two days ago in which 4
British troops completely outwitted
part Of one Of Germany's crack regi- /
ments- It is rather striking com
mentary that when the war began the !
officer in command of the British unit
was young solicitor and such a thing
as leading soldiers into battle had !
never entered his head. Two years OF |
training in the school of actual war
works its own wonders
British Losses Are Small.
The losses in the recently inaugu-
rated operations, which continue 10
widen with time. have Deen so much
smaller than would be naturally eX-
pected in attacks upon such strong
positions as those from which the Ger
mans have been driven that the army
are fairly jubilant Another
gratifying feature OF the fighting has
been the speed with which the British
troops have everywhere attained their
objective Driving the Germans from
positions which they had held for two
fighting spirit than il ever had before.
Call IL the SieEfried Line
The turning OF the top or the linden
burg line, TO which attention is nov
called in the cOmmuniQue. /
has been an achievement of which the
full Importance has naturally not yet
been developed The Germans, by the I
way. no longer call this line after Hin
denburg. but know it as the Siegfried |
line. The switch TO that line from |
Queant. north, which. prisoners say. is
not yet finished and was not expected /
TO be used except as last resort IL
known as the Wotan line In the eX-
IRENE south the Hindenburg line is
known as the Albrecht line The COM
plete smashing Of the Nimy ridge seems
TO have somewhat upset the German
plan but they are evidently determining
10 put up the strongest possible defen-
sive fight before falling back again.
French Keep Up Heavy Fire.
Paris. France. April 14.-Artillery
fighting continues with marked IN
tensity in the Champa gne. the war Of
flee announces French patrols were
active and brought back prisoners.
South of St. Quentin there were heavy
artillery actions
The statement follows
south of st. Quentin our artillery !
continued to lombard the German po-
sitions. There was no infantry fight