The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-05-04
FORCED TO GIVE UP
GROUND AT CHERISY
They Are Still i'm Control OF
Fresnoy i'm Spite of Furi-
GUS Counter : Attacks by
Germans-MukalOff Farm
Was Added to the Cap
lures To-day

night made progress northwest of St
Quentin and northeast of Hargicourt
capturing Malakoff farm, the war office
announced to-day. On the Arras front
the British have maintained their hold
on Fresnoy and all the positions cap
tured in that neighborhood in yester-
days drive. The British were com
PEELED to fall back from the advanced
positions captured yesterday in the
neighborhood of Cherish and astride the
Arras Cambria road.
The capture OF Fresnoy was re-
lated in last nights official communica-
tion, which reads as follows;
"Fierce fighting occurred throughout
the day from west of Queant to north of
Fresnoy, four miles east of the village
of Vimy The enemy again employed
large reserves of men and guns and de-
livered repeated counter-attacks practi-
cally along the whole battle front.
"These hostile forces suffered heavily
from our concentrated artillery and ma.
chine gun fire both while assembling
prior to the attack and during the ac
tual assault.
"In the face of obstinate resistance
our troops this morning penetrated a
sector of the Hindenburg line west of
Queant and have maintained themselves
there all day against constant and pow
erful counter attacks.
Further advance also was made in
the neighborhood of Cherisy, astride the
Arras Cambria bank of the Scarpe, where
the positions, which changed hands fire.
quently and were defended with great de-
termination, are now in our possession.
"On the left of the battle front we
captured the village of Fresnoy and the
enemy's positions south and north of
Fresnoy on front of two miles. We
also gained footing in the enemy's
trench system north of Oppy.
Progress was made at other points
and the fighting continues. In addition
to the enemy's severe losses in killed
and wounded, we captured several hun
dreds of German prisoners.
"Great activity in the air continues.
Four German airplanes were brought
down yesterday in the air fighting and
another hostile machine was shot down
in our lines. In addition, our airplanes
drove down five other enemy machines
out of control and destroyed four Ger
man kite balloons. One of our machines
is missing"
Canadians Distinguish Themselves.
Fighting of terrible intensity ragged
throughout Thursday at the main point
of the British attack, says a Reuter- cor
respondent at British headquarters.
"The battling" he adds, "has been in
many places of dingdong order, which
renders it extremely difficult to define the
situation, but / think it may certainly
be claimed as a successful day for our
gallant troops.
"The most conspicuous gains have been
on the hanks of the long front, while
toward the center, up the valley of the
Scarpe, we have made less progress ow-
ing to the intensity of concealed machine
gun fire.
Despite the opposition of massed Ger
man forces, the Canadian troops took |
Fresnoy. 0ppy, however, still proved too |
strongly held to attempt to carry it by |
direct frontal attack without courting |
q heavier casualty list than the enter |
prise warranted The wood in front of |
the ruined village literally was infested !
with machine guns.
guns "tit pcANhtu III
at various heights, while lines of uncut |
wire were discovered in gulleys which /
concealed them from direct observation /
as well as from the searching effect of |
our barrage, so that the attack upon this |
place amounted to little more than a
reconnaissance in force and our troops
withdrew to enable the gunners to con-
centrate their fire upon the newly dis
covered obstacles.
"South OF the Sensee the battle devel-
oped into most successful sweeping
our troops reaching Cherisy
Conyerging tactics upon Reincourt car
ried our advance across the Hindenburg
line and threatened TO cut off the garri-
son at Bulleeourt. The garrison was re-
ported to have been captured, but the re-
port was not confirmed.
"The Germans are fighting with des-
perate obstinacy. Several new divisions
have been identified at different parts OF
the front, showing that the Germans
continue to use their strategic reserves.
"Gounter-attscks, usually on a formid-
able scale, developed promptly opposite
every point where we gained ground.
The enemy recsptured some ground al
Gsvrelle but the counter-sttacks gen
erally were broken up by our artillery
IRE, which was maintained with almost
Incredible intensity"