Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1917-04-15
ENGLISH WITHIN
A few HUNDRED
YARDS OF GOAL
Garry Nearby Village at Point
of Bayonet, Germans Losing
Heavily as They Make
Fierce Resistance.
LENS AREA IS INVESTED
Fayet, Mile Northwest of St.
Quentin, is Captured by
British Troops.
FRENCH BUSY IN SOUTH
LENS AREA is INVESTED
FRENCH BUSY IN SOUTH
BULLETIN.


London, April l4.-British troops
now are within a few hundred yards
Of the town Of St. Quentin. During
Saturday. says the official statement
from British headquarters in France
tonight, Field Marshal Haig's men
fought their way south and east Of
Fayet, one mile northwest Of St.
Quentin. The village of Gricourt,
one mile north Of Fayet. was carried
at the point of the bayonet. The Ger
mans are reported to have resisted
stubbornly and suffered many killed
and wounded, in addition to the loss
Of more than 400 prisoners.
The mining center of Lens now is
virtually surrounded on three sides
by the advancing British troops. The
town of LEVIN, southwest Of St.
Pierre, northwest Of Lens, also has
been taken. Along the entire front
from the Scarpe river to south Of
Loos, the British have pressed for
ward and have reached points two to
three miles east Of Vimy ridge.
South of the Scarpe river there was
heavy fighting in which the Germans
employed strong reserve forces. Ger
man attacks and counter-attacks fol-
lowed one another at short intervals,
but the British troops maintained the
positions previously captured and in
flicted serious losses on the attackers.
London, April IA The British have
taken bulldog grip on the whole
German line from Loos to north Of
st. Quentin and refuse to be shaken
off.
Under what the newspapers call
| the .Haig plan" first ore section Of
the Hindenburg line and then another
has been subjected TO violent bom-
bardment, followed by infantry attacks
which have badly shaken, il they have
not seriously, broken, the front on
which the Germans have depended
| for the defense of the industrial dis
tricts of France which have been in
their hands for more than two, years.
The Lens coal-mining area around
the town is being closely invested and
the German hold on it is becoming
most precarious. Several more VIII
lagos and positions southwest of the
town fell into British hands during
the night, together with four eight
inch howitzers, and the line here has
been linked up with the positions
taken from the Germans in the bat
tie of Loos.
The German stay in St, Quentin
| is likewise additionally threatened
through the capture by the British OF
the village of Fayet, bare mile
northwest of the town, from which
point the British guns command the
German lines of communication
northward. Again the British have
advanced further toward the Cambrai-
st. Quentin road, while southeast OF
Arras they are approaching Queant.
which is the northern extremity Of
the new German line defending Cam
b-ai.
Horne Commands Artillery.
General Horne, who is considered
the greatest artillery expert in the
British army and who assisted Gen
eral Nivelle in the successful attack
by the French north of Verdun in
December last, commands the Brit
,sh forces around Lens, where, owing
tc the natural defenses composed Of
waste dumps around the mines, the
artillery must largely be depended
upon. General Horne has on his
right the army under Major General
+. H. H. Allenby, who has also gained
new laurels in this war.
These generals and their colleagues
under Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig
have accomplished since Monday a
work which many military writer's
expected would occupy great part
of the summer, but thus far there
has been no fag-waving nor celebra-
ton in Great Britain, The impress
sion prevails that greater events will
soon follow and that with the fall
Of Lens the relief of Lille will not
be long delayed.
Gaps in German Defenses.
British Headquarters in France,
April l4.--(Via London )-The Brit
ish last night broke the German
| -