New Britain herald., 1917-11-24
FRESHMEN FIGHTING IN HEROIC FASHION
 ON WESTERN FRONT
Without the Aid of Tanks to Get Through the Barb Wire, They
 Succeed With Bombs
GERMANS DESERT GUNS
 AND ABANDON HILL

In Desperate Hand to-hand Battle al
 Mocuvres, Men Fall in Streets and
 Are Shot in Houses, While Once
 More tho Cavalry Shows Its Valor
 British Army Headquarters in , France, Friday. Nov. 23 CBy the As sociated Press).-The main attack on the opening of the offensive Tuesday was along the western bank of the sAna! Du Nord. which runs almost due nort'' and south from point little NeEr Of Havrincourt. The maj, Hin denburg line trenches were built llonG this water way and the British had to light their way up to the big ditch.
 There was intense hard work almost from the start, as the Ulster.tes, who undertook this task, got in among the l-crnah defenses. Because of the tscr"t E.tGre of the attack no artillery coulC ho used to cut the strong lines af barbeG wire in front of the trenches and tho tanks were not operating in this section. Therefore, it was neces- bary for the Irishmen to charge the bntanglements and bomb them to pieces in order to force their way Through.
 It was a big undertaking, for the Irish came under concentrated rife md machine gun fire as eoon as they began to advance, hut they maint ained Gheir repu utatlon for v'alor and bonn bed lhetr way with such grim deterrlina- lion that they drove a entering wedge Into the trench system near Havrin- court. Northwest of the town is high bank on the west of the canal This elevation was strongly fortified with dugouts and there war a great concentration of machine guns. The British had no alternative but to charge the position up the slopes, and this they did The crest was gained In the face of heavy fire and des- perate bayonet fighting followed.
 The Ulsterites hurled themselves on khe Germans with such fury that the latter were compelled to desert their machine guns and abandon the hill, and many of them were shot down as they fled northward along the canal. A large number of prisoners were cap tured in the dugouts on the hill and beside the canal. This fight occurred at o'clock Tuesday morning.
 In the meantime German machine guns on the eastern side of the canal were giving much trouble and as soon as the high bank was captured Brit lsh engineers began building brides over the waterway in order to give crossing to the infantry. They un- dertook to have these bridges con- pleted by 3 o'clock and by remark able piece of work the task was ac- complished. Previously they had re-
 ;,, ytNiT lty and the troops were able to get over the canal to the eastern bank. The Irish infantry was then advan- cing northward on both sides of the canal with the main Cambrai-Bap- aume railway as their immediate ob- jective.
 Irish Held Up.
 During the afternoon the Irish were held up temporarily because of the shortage of ammunition near sunken road southwest of Graincourt where the Germans were established in con- siderable force. This position was rendered doubly strong by a machine gun concentration north of Grain court which could sweep the British lines near the canal. The ammuni- ton came up and the British charged forward again. They overcame the resistance south of the Cambrai-Ba- pauine highway.
 The Germans then were firing with machine guns down across the Cam Drai road. Hand-to- hand fighting oc- rurred at positions below the road, nut the Germans finally were forced 70 withdraw. Dugouts lighted by electricity were found in the chain If defenses along the highway. By s o'clock in the evening the Irish troops had crossed the Cambrai-Bapaume highway on both sides of the canal nnd taken a stand south of Moeuvres. This was the situation here at the end of the first days fighting.
 Wednesday morning the British pushed forward, this time having the support of certain amount Of ar tillery. Moeuvres was strongly held but the Irish stormed the defense with bombs and forced their way half through the village. Here they came up against g. heavy barricade, which they took with tho bayonet and for Il time drove the Germans out of the village. In the afternoon the Ger nar9 appeared from the east side of the ca.al for a counter attack. but tlis was smashed by machine gun and rifle fire
 Later iN tho afternoon the German artillery opened up and heavily shelled thC truuch,@ held by the British south of Mu"ENr,"
 thursday morning the Irish were to>linl; n *t of Moeuvres and the east lrnnk "f t| anal Tn the afternoon the GcrI.tlr., nrIi\ crt,i ! 5utitich cCt:.!-