The Washington herald., 1917-11-24
Kaiser's Troops Fight Des-
perately to Stave OFF
Advance.
APPEARED WEAK In
FIRST DAYS BATTLE
Line Stifened Later on but
Suffered Greatly from
British Guns.

British Headquarters in France,
Nov. q QDelayed).-It is now possible
TO give more details of Tuesdays
battle. In the advance south. Of Cam
brai the first hard fighting occurred
at Lateau Wood. which lies on the
Cambria highway. south OF Masnieres.
This wood finally was cleared Of
Germans and the adyance continued
toward Masnieres. >
Some opposition was encountered
in a suburb, bit by ] o'clock this
had been overcome and the British
had crossed the rEscaut Canal at a
lock.
The small German garrison fought
bitterly to retain Masnieres The
whole place was undermined with
dugouts in which the enemy was hid
den with machine guns, but the Ger
Dlans were forced to give up this
Uiace after a sanguinary struggle, al
Tough some Of them were still hold
ing out in cellars today.
Second Canal Crossing.
Marcoing was taken with a small
resistance on the part OF the enemy,
and this gave the British a second
crossing Of the canal. The advancing
troops forced a passage here at the
same hour as Masnieres was entered.
The Masnieres-Beaurois trench line,
north Of Mssnieres. apparently had
been re-enorced- by Germans from
gambraI, and this 'front.' held Up. fhs
aoSaRce temporarily with rife ana
machine gun fire. but the British
ultimately forced the Germans from
the trenches in hand-to-hand fght-
ing.
German resistance on the first day
was comparatively weak, as a whole,
and they surrendered freely in many
places. On Wednesday their lines stiff
fened and hard fighting followed Ger
man re-enforcements from Lens and
two companies OF invaIids were
thrown into the line.
The first counter attack came over
the wedge from the northeast of Mas
nieres. The enemy advanced in mass
ed formation, as in the early days of
the war. The British had concentrated
a large number of machine guns at
this point and were hoping for a coun-
ter attack. They permitted the enemy
to advance to within loo yards of the
line before they opened fire. Then the
machine guns and artillery were turn
ed on the Germans and they were
smashed in a withering storm.
At 1 o'clock an attack on Marcoing
was attempted by the enemy, but. as
in the former case, they were caught
in heavy artillery and machine gun
FIRE and turned back after suffering
severely.
An hour later another body of Ger
mans advanced on Noyeles, which was
held by the company OF British troops.
Here some of the stiffest fighting OF
the battle took place at close quarters.
Both sides rushed up re-enforcements,
and for two hours the battle surged
back and forth through the streets and
among the buildings.
Germans Not Good Enough,
1t was a melee in which the bay
onet played the principal part. The
Germans fought well, but they were
not good enough to withstand the
fury Of the British assault. and grad
ually they were forced back across
the canal to the east.
Among the prisoners taken by the
British were several officers, who were
caught in the regimental headquar-
ters. The regimental commander was
and it is reported that his
advent into the British lines was q
particularly humorous spectacle.