New Britain herald., 1917-11-24
FRESHMEN FIGHTING
 IN HEROIC FASHION
 ON WESTERN FRONT
(continuod from E4rst Pass)

(Continuod from Etrst Page) ter attack from the north; and after fighting through the and among the houses they forced the British to withdraw to the solthorn outskirts. This morning the Irish again surged forward against the town and at an carly hour had worked their way around toward the north.
 In the Graincourt section. on the right of the Irish. remarkable work was done by cavalry on the hrst day.
 Horse SQuAdrons.
 Two sQuadrons of horse accom- pllshed the downfall of Annux and captured 1t between 1 and in the evening. The place was found to have a system of catacombs under the church and they were held by the Germans, who had an electric power atatdon for lighting. An elaborate battalion headquarters fell into Brit ish hands.
 During Tuesday night the Germans counter-attacked Annux with troops which had just been brought from the
 
 place and the British withdrew. We'd nesday morning the British attacked Annux and rscaptured 1t.
 Proceeding northward. the British drove the enemy from the trenches near the edge of Burlon wood. This trench was SO remarkably we'll camou- haged that no Agn of 1t was visible until the British saw German faces apparently coming out of the ground. The battle began and later the Brit tsh were forced to withdraw on &C., count of heavy machine gun firing. Yesterday morning the British again attacked the trench with assistance of the tanks. The troops which cap tured Flesquieres and Cantaing en- countered hard resistance at the for mer place the first day of the offen- siVe. Tanks led the infantry in the attack. but the Germans, with the as- sistance of heavy guns, held out the whole of Tuesday in the face of strong attacks. Wednesday morning the British again attacked and this time forced the Germans from tho will lage after taking their guns.
 Wednesday the advance was rapid. Strong resistance was encountered at the sunken road between Marcoing and Gratncourt and very heavy ma chine gun fire from the direction of Cantaing and Burlon wood. The Brit ish. however, battled their way for ward with rifles and bayonets and by noon had forced an entrance into Cantaing.
 Heavy Counter Thrust.
 The Germans battled determinedly, and there was very hard fighting at , close quarters before the British finally drove the enemy out of Fon- taine.
 The British remained in posses sion of Fontaine until after noon yes | terday, when the Germans made a | heavy counter thrust and again occu- l pied the town. However, the British 1 were forced to withdraw only 8 short l distance and still hold the ground 1 from Cantaing to the south of Bourbon.
 There was, however, heavy fighting to the north in the region of Bulle- court. The main objective here was the famous tunnel trench, an under ground fortihcation of great strength about 2,000 yards long. The entire trench was mined, as the British we'll ! knew and behind 1t tho Germans had ! dug 1000 yards of support trench. Many concrete pill boxes also re- the defensos.
 For q month the British had been keeping tho Germans nervous by put ting down smoke barrages and em- ploying gas. The enemy had become ! so accustomed to this that when the British started furry of gun fire at dawn Tuesday the Germans thought 1t was more of the same thing, and they were caught unawares.- The greatest danger which the attackers faced was the possibility of mines being blown up, and they knew this must be avoided. Accordingly. they took along a body of expert tunnel men. By good fortune they mastered tho secret of the mines and cut the lead wires. This enabled the British which swarmed into the l