New Britain herald., 1918-04-08
BRITISH PILE UP ENEMY DEAD
IN ATTEMPTS TO TAKE ARRAS
Big Shells Plow Throughl
Ranks While Machine
Gunners Rain Lead on
Waves of Infantrymen.

April (By the Associated Press)-
Attacks and counter attacks continue
to spring up at various points along
the battle front. While mono of them
mas seemed large compared with the
intense conflict waged in the first
days Of the German offensive, yet all
OF them are important in that they
represent the foundation work Of big
ger events to come
Twice last night and again this
morning the Germans undertook to
advance their lines at points in the
sector north and south of Albert and
each time they failed. At o'clock
this morning a considerable enemy
force advanced for an attack near
Bucquoy. north of Albert.
The Germans were seen coming
while they were still a mile away
and the British artillery and ma
chine guns put down such an intense
barrage among them that the pro-
tected assault was stopped. Some
time afterWard the enemy reformed
and made another effort but this was
checked without use of infantry
One Of the attacks last evening was
south of Albert where the enemy had
been battling so determinedly to get
a strong hold on the Albert-An1iens
railway. Under cover of a heavy
machine gun barrage the German In
fantry surged against the British line
but was met with such a whitening
rifle and machine-gun fire that it
was compelled to retire.
The other attack was near Serre.
Two short but intense periods of bar
rage fire were put down on the Brit
I-I3 lnf1 80 r1a 4I1
German infantry rushed forward In
heavy force AS they advanced they
were caught In tornado Of British
artillery fire which ploughed through
tiicT ranks and smashed them.
Further fighting occurred at Han
/ gard wood which has been the scene
of much cruel fighting In the last few
days The British in the early hours
delivered counter attacks by which
; they forced the enemy back some
what and took a few prisoners. Ac-
cording to the latest reports the Brit
ish are hojding on to the western
edge OF the woods.
In this connection, it was noticed
the prisoners stated that the enemy
planned a strong attack at Hangard
wood today.
AdHSElb Ill NASTY IL oSitioh'
The German efforts today at Boo
quoy and yesterday near Serre We're
continuous Of their alta ks to get
themselves out Of nasty position IN
which they find themselves in this
region and in which they have been
since the big drive stopped.
At this point the Germans are
. holding a very sharp salient which
! bulges out into British territory along
q line roughly represented by Buc-
! Quoy, Hebuterne, Colincamps, Au-
! chonviuers and Hamel This salient
! Is somewhat saucer shaped, the outer
! edge being on high ground. Upon
! these elevations the British sat down
ut the end of their retirement and
! since then have defied the enemy to
| dislodge them.
Within the salient is an inhospit-
able zone which formed a part Of No
| Mans Land in the first battle of the
| Somme It is shell torn and 1t is an
! unpleasant place over which to con-
! duct operations. Not only is the
ground bad, but the whole sector IS
dominated by British machtne-guns
! which send never ending streams Of
+ bullets swirling into the enemy camps
| which present excellent targets.
If the Germans were to start the
second phase of their grand offensive
now and were forced to "kick off"
from their present position here they
| wguld encounter tremendous Difficult
ties in maintaining communications
across the desert which lies across
| lust back Of their front line. They
| need the high ground on the edge Of
their saucer before they can begin a
| big attack so that they can get guns
forward, for otherwise the artillery
would be outdtstanced and everything g
| would depend on infantry.
It was because of this situation the
attacks were made Friday by the
| Germans. More or less fresh divi-
sions were brought up for this oper-
| alton and a huge number of guns
| were brought into play especially over
the back areas. Considerable guam
| titles of gas also were thrown into
the vicinity of Fonquevillers. indi-
eating the Germans did not intend to
try to advance to q great depth since
this gas hangs about for long time.
The enemy was simply trying to
get a hold on the dominating ridges.
They failed to advance at most points
about the salient and lost q consider
able stretch of ground in q British
counter attack near Cossignoi wood,
where the British pushed forward
some 500 yards. At Bucquoy the en-
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