Evening star., 1917-05-03
BRITISH ARE BITING
INTO ENEMY LINE
|NNEW OFFENSIVE
Gen. Haig Smashes Forward
in Early Morning Drive
Over 12-MiIe Front.
IMPORTANT POSITIONS
ALREADY CAPTURED
Heavy Fighting Still Goes On.
French Score an Important Sue
cess in Champagne.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press
LONDON, May 3.-The British began
another attack this morning. The war
office announces that progress is being
made.
A number of strong positions already
have been captured by the British. The
announcement follows:
Heavy fighting is taking place all
along the front from the Hindenburg
line, south Of the Sensee river. to the
Acheyille-Vimy road. Our troops are
making progress and~have already cap
tured a number of strong hostile posi-
tions"
The new British attack takes in virtu-
ally the entire front on which the battle
of Arras was begun on Easter Monday
and evidently is a major operation. 1t
is the fourth great attack which the Brit
ish have made along this line. The at
tacking front is about twelve miles long.
British Move in the Dark.
In their new attack of today the Brit
ish made progress in the direction of
Fresnoy and Cherisy, and also toward
Bullecourt. Reuters correspondent at the
British headquarters reports
The British attacked in the darkest
hour preceding dawn this morning,
striking at the German positions east
of Arras. The infantry assault was de-
layed until half an hour after the half
mAOn had gone down. The night was
clear and starlit. and the almost cease
less flashing of guns gave definite
shape to the shadowy outlines Of the
salient points.
The correspondent says the attack
was directed to the taking of certain
points of considerable importance and
to improving the British line. The Brit
ish desired to gain complete mastery of
dominating positions, whence their ar
tillery would be able more effectively
to devastate the fresh troops which
the Germans continue to throw in.
Thousands Go Forward.
There was the usual preliminary tor
nado of fire from weapons of all cal
ibers. and then the equal familiar
creeping barrage, working with abso-
lutte punctuality as the order to the men
to go forward was snapped forth stimuli
taneously down miles of trenches
Thousands of crouching figures formed
into regular waves for the advance.
Then came the inevitable deadly
rattle of machine gun and rifle fire and
the crashing of bursting bombs the
infantry reached the parapet of the first
enemy trench. AS to the results OBJ
tanned. the correspondent adds, reports
thus far are vague, but the British
made progress in several directions
toward Fresnoy and Cherisy and also
toward Bullecourt. which is a point on
The Hindenburg line. The Germans
counter attacked heavily near Gavrelle
and Loos. These onslaughts were dealt
with satisfactorily by the British gun
Ners.
French Make Gain.
PARIS. May 8, 2:09 p.m.-The official
statement of today follows:
There was heavy artillery fighting
all along the front of the Chemindes-
DANES. where numerous patrol encoun-
ters also occurred.
In the Champagne we repulsed Ger
man attacks in the wood west of Mont
Cornillet and on the heights east of
Mont Haut. In the latter region we re-
duced an isolated German position
which was still offering resistance and
captured the garrison of nine officers
and 210 men.
"On the left bank of the Meuse our
detachments penetrated German trench
es at Avocourt wood. Patrol encoun-
ters occurred on the right bank of the
river. near Damloup and BezonvauX.
There was intermittent artillery fight
ing at some points along this portion of
the front. especially in the section of
St. MihieL"
Treves Shelled by French.
The official statement issued by the
war office last night says:
'In reprlsal for the bombardment of
Chalons and Epernay by German air
planes the night of April 1890. five of
our machines last night Tuesday, few
over the town of Treyes. on which they
dropped a number of projectiles. All
the shells reached their objectives and
fire of great violence broke out in the
center of the town. April 80 and May l
our pilots brought down three German
airplanes; ten other enemy machines
were seriously damaged"
AindnnhIlrn'e Forces