The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-08-13
Attack Foe With Dash and
Bravery-Battle Slows Up
While Soldiers Rest.
ALLIES KEEP ON GAINING
Germans Put Up Heavy Fire
With Machine Guns, but
Are OutfOught.
~ PERRY ROBINSON.

Special Gable Despatch TO TIE ,SrS from rae
London Times.
Copyright. 1915: oil rights reseyred.
WITH THE BRITISH ARMY. Aug. "a
There was no such sensational news to-
day as on the last four days. the exhaus-
ton Of the human machine having put a
period to the triumphant advance Of the
Allies. The enemy, moreover, has recov-
cred somewhat from his panic.
with twenty thousand prisoners on
the British front alone. in addition TO
the killed and wounded we have prac-
tically blotted out many enemy divisions.
OF the divisions that were originally In
the line against US only remnants re-
main. The new reserve divisions the
enemy Is bringing up. using such guns
as they managed to save In the area we
overran. together with some new guns
brought UP with all possible speed make
possible a stiffening OF the resistance.
Though we made some progress we had
to hght hard for 1t.
At Lhons the Germans counter at
tackled heavily and succeeded in throw
lng US hack temporarily. The Australian
treopt iAsa rsattacked and once mors
threw the Germans out OF the town
On ths somme there has -ssen some
hard fighting. and ths~,Americans.
hear. fought with the greatest dash and
bravery Everywhere hear the great
est praise for their behavior. They had
to attack on gound that was, most .difi-
cult. and which we had once taken and
then lost They had to face heavy shell
ing and a concentrated machine gun
nre, but they went through steadily and
splendidly.
Pushing On beyond Bray Wood.
After the capture OF Bray Wood We
pushed on north Of Etinehem. where a
promontory makes a loop In the river
between that town and Bray. The Ger
| mans resisted stubbornly. using the old
trenches and dugouts that had served
them in the 1916 battles. The Austria
lians attacked south of the Somme. but
could not get beyond Proyart In the face
OF great numbers OF machine guns.
When this attack did not succeed our
forces north of the river withdrew for
some distance, though they still held
their positions a mile west OF Bray.
In the evening the resistance to our
| attack was so strong on the south side
of the river that the attackers were
forced to crawl toward the enemy ma
| chine guns on their stomachs for the
last thousand yards.
North Of Proyart We knew that the
Germans strongly held a wooded section
| and It was not until after two hours OF
Al ,lat &ha nztr 1iav unf
possession. At the same time they
worked through the village of Mericourt
| to Catiaux wood. another strongly de-
| Tended position to the east.
Our whole situation in this neighbor-
| hood Is much improved. Further north
the English troops edged forward. pivot
| ing at pernancourt. and gaining more
grounds at Meaulte. Besides the night
| ing in the extreme north of the sector
and in the centre around Lihons there
was also some heavy battling to the
| south. near the junction of our lines with
| the French. Here we were troubled by
| the old trenches and the vast stretches
| OF wire. The cavalry made gallant ef-
forts to push forward. but in the face
of heavy machine gun FIRE the effort had
| TO be abandoned.
| battle Line Grows Stationary.
The whole battle line tends to grow
more stationary, and with our guns com
ing up we Will start again the old gam,
| Of making life miserable for the enem,
| along the Somme. Already We are pour
| ing a harassing hre into the roads ant
| bridges
| In no former battles has the coopera
| tion of the air forces been so complete
or more valuable to our infantry. Oui
loss In machines the first day was heavy
but the price was low when the grea
results are considered, Many OF oul
airmen complained that their creates
/ difficulty was TO avoid collisions with
I their comrades.
Our bonbing machines did magnificent
work In bombing the enemys airdrome!
and ammunition dumps In the rear. Thi,
prevents the German riiers from taking
to the skies. l understand that oul
bombers turned the Somme bridges into
veritable slaughter houses.
! Several hundred of our machines wer,
In the air at the same time. many o.
/ them returning to their bases three ol
four times for new supplies Of bombs
One of our two seaters saw party o.
thirty enemy machines, of which sever
or eight detached themselves to giv'
battle to our fiier. Our men shot dowI
one OF the enemy and then turned asid,
to drop some bombs. This accom-
plished. they turned to the enemy grouI
again. Our pilot was wounded and fel
| forward In his seat. The observer, how
ever, reached over and got control o
the machine, and by a desperate strug
gle, under attack all the time by sh,
enemy group. he finally managed 4
land behind our lines.