Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-06-10
GERMANS SUFFER
! FEARFUL LOSSES
British Forces in Belgium Beat
Off Severe Enemy Coun-
ter Attacks.
1000 FOES CAPTURED

BY the Associated Pr~sa
BRITISH HEADQUARTERS m
FRANCE. June .. via London.-w,th
eneir overwhelming weight of massed
guns and In hand-to-hand fighting NJ
some points. the British have beaten of,
al herman counter attacks upon thei,
newly won positions beyond the Me..
stnes ridge
Prussian and Bavartan troonz ar,,,
or"ard under storm OF fire, poured
apoh ehem from advanced British bat.
very positions, suffered frightfuIly. A
tnis dispatch is written they had sue.
ceeoed In recapturing and holding only
one BRUSH post. at Klein Zillebeke-
"hich mad been pushed well forward Of
the consolidated British main line.
German Plan Upset.
Beaten back in the center. the Ger.
mans. apparently. have massed toward
ene hanks OF the front on which thu
BRUSH advanced. They attempted sew
elai times to organize heavy counter
attacks in the direction of warn.,oc
0ut the British guns upset their nlan.
Gums OF the stinest fights since tha
liieiai attacks began at dawn Thursdav
nYe ,,sm occurred southeast OF Messinas
Wsrgg; win Germans advancing from
waFneton. Australians have bean in
me me thick of this fighting. which At
s.hes mas sWayed to and fro about ad.
vanced posts
Early today the Germans conducted a
the nefghborhood of that viiIage on thS
nortnern turn of tho Ypres salient In
uer Ihis hre they made four raids into
the British front lines
soutn sor ts31 OF Lens, which sets a new record
tor TINS style of harassing warfare,
Tor they took about $50 prisoners.
Thirty Guns Are Captured.
The booty from the Messines battle
mas not yet been catalogued, but It in
known that more than thirty guns were
captured. while many more were buried
in battery positions which were all but
obliterated in the hurricane fre which
accompanied the assault.
The German army defeated at Me..
sines was commanded by Gen. Count
Sfxt Won Arnim, who made such an M
teresting report during the battle OF
planned of tho breaking down Of the
German army system. (This report die-
closed the shortcomin4 of every branch
OF me German army In view Of the un-
thsssisnaT system I had % broken q down. Se,u
that the British airplanes were supe-
rfor to the Germans, and that more
guns and ammunition were necessarily
army in the army group of Crown
Prince Rupprecht. Gen. won Arnim
nrst came into renown in the war Of
1870. and in 1911 had the distinction OF
mand of the 4th German Army Corps.
Water Mains Go Forward.
The Germans were pouring shells
atop the Messines ridge today from
fantry positions to which they had
under the heat Of torrid sun the
British were completing the recon-
struction work which always follows
a great military advance. The great
battlef1elds to distributing points near
the fighting lines. Telephone cables
have gone forward in underground
conduits.
various artillery units in the work Of
getting their guns forward into the
positions that had been selected for
and allotted to them long before the
Germans had been driven from their
various points Of vantage. This rival
ry was particularly keen between the
South Irish and the Ulster artillery
units. More stories are coming from
the fighting front today, telling Of the
bravery of the Irish troops and how
wounded south Of Ireland Catholics
were sent back to the dressing sta
tions in Ulster ambulances.
Germans Aid Wounded.
All the British divisions involved in
the fighting testified to the readiness
with which the German prisoners as
sisted in the work Of bringing the
British wounded from the battlefield.
They volunteered for this work and
performed it with great tenderness. 1t
reflected their gratitude for escaping
from the maelstrom of battle and the
staggering bombardment under which
they had lived for seven long days ana
Watching this great battle Of the world
war one could not but marvel that any
human being could come back unscathed
from the enemy's side. As matter OF
fact. most of the prisoners taken had
huddled in dugouts which, fortunately Tor
them, withstood the tempest OF shells
poured upon them.
The Messines attack, 1t must be remen1-
bered, was carried out by a single British
errny This army, commanded by Gen
Sir Herbert Plumer. congratulated itself
today on the fact that it's success had
been won with just about one-f1fth the
casualties which it was felt might have
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