The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-04-29
ASSOCIATED PRESS . MAN WRITES OF BIC {. FIGHT IN PROGRESS
Germans Making Desperate Effort to Hold the Hin- denburg Line At All
 Costs" as Ordered
FROM A STAFF CORRESPONDENT
 OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

FROM STAFF CORRESPONDENT
 OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
 At British Headquarters in
 France, April 28.-(Via Lon- don. There was more desper. ate fighting along the British front today and the Germans, evidently spurred on by the
 declaration from Field Marshal
 Von Hindenburg that they
 must hold their present posi- lions at all costs, are making a
 resistance more stubborn than
 any heretofore encountered.
 At various points captured in the
 first onward rush by the British the
 Germans have been ordered into
 counter attacks with reckless dis
 regard for loss of life.
 The battle was still in progress late
 today and it was possible near Oppy tc
 see at one time no less than five gray
 waves of Germans blindly facing tho
 British fire in an attempt to retalSe theil
 lost positions. Heavy shells broke upor
 them in a great explosive torrent, and
 where each shell burst great gaps were cut in the ranks of the oncoming men
 Those who penetrated the British bar. rage from the larger calibred guns were hu al
 under continuous sprays of machine gur bullets.
 ATTACKS BREAK DOWN Under this galling fire the attack utterly broke down. In some places there was ferocious hand to-hand fighting. The British got in well with the bayonet but there was one bit of fighting in which even bayonets were forgotten and the , men went at each others throats ant eyes. Many Germans went to theil 1 dea9A from blows from rife buttA. CLOUDS OF DUST At times the fighting was wholly ob scured by great clouds of dust the mud, " batttehelds of 10 days ago having en. entirely disappeared. The dust raised by the barrage fire resembled an approach | ing storm. Shrapnel bullets were pelting the dry earth like so many leaden drop. of rain, and great mountains of dust seemed to spring from the earth every, where.
 The attack began with the coming O dawn. It extended in an easterly direc- tion from Vimy ridge, at it's northern hinge, and ran southward to the Scarpe
 Progress was made everywhere. and tht so-called Oppy-Mericourt line. which protects the Drocourt switch to tho Hin
 denburg line. was pierced again The Canadians who had been more ol less resting since they swept the Ger mans off both slopes of Vlmy ridge or Easter Monday, made brilliant assault against Arleaux-E Gohelle and captured that village and held it against all coun- ter attacks The British also crossed tn, German lines just west of Oppy and there
 has been fierce fighting about that village all day.
 TAKE GREENLAND HILL Southeast of Oppy is a gradually rising knoll known as Greenland hill. which looks down into the Scarpe valley. Int British swept onto this hill today and although it was bitterly contested, they
 were, late today, securing their newly won positions. The chemical works or the Arras- Douai railway, just north O the village of Rouex, which was another particularly hot spot in the fighting changed hands several times. Up to { few days ago the chemical works stoot up prominently on the landscape. with : (Continued on Page Two)