TERRIFIC EFFECT OF ARTILLERY

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 96, 23 April 1917, Page 7

TERRIFIC EFFECT OF ARTILLERY

TALLY OF PRISONERS MOUNTING

'(BY TELEQRAPH. —UNITED PBESS ASSOCIATION. —COPYRIGHT.) (AUSTRALIAN-NEW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION.) PARIS, 20th. April. Further details of the French offensive show the Germans received heavy reinforcements, and the effect of the bombardment on the crowded trenches was terrific. The army between Sbissons and Craonne met with brilliant success in two attacks against NanteTiil and Braye. The Germans managed.to hold the positions between the two villages, but on the second assault excellent results > were obtained. The troops ascended the slopes of the plateau north of Vailly, which the Germans were- using as the southern pivot of their ■withdrawal from the Somme. The French capture of Aiile, at the foot of the northern slope of the plateau, was quite as striking as the capture of Vimy ridge. It was cleared at one run, except the summit. At Clraonne, most important results are expected from' the capture of Hautebise Farm. The''army operating from Craohne to north of R^eims had its fiercest fighting in the vicinity of Ville-au-Bois; where the forest was very strongly organised and packed with machine guns. A clever French inandeuvre ended in surrounding an important body of the enemy, which surrendered en masse with many machine ,guns, the prisoners exceeding j.700. The showclad ground east of' Reims curiously assisted the attackers. The Germans* half frozen and dazed by the bombardment, Were so blinded by the reflection of the sun on the glistening snow that they were unable" to use their machine guns' before the French were upon them. ' ■ The enemy is making a desperate resistance before the French advance on St. Quentin. The French carried the jdrtified village of. Fayet at the point of the bayonet, taking 400 prisoners, besides inflicting enormous losses on the Germans irl killed and wounded. The prisoners were mostly ( thin and pale, and showed evidence of great fatigue. The majority,are of puny build, and very different from those captured in 1914, or the crack troops usedatMonchy and Lag'nicourt. '■ t . Two German divisions attacked the French at Juvincourt> and Were cut to pieces by the French artillery, and another -lost its way, and, like the Germans at Lagnieourt, the men blundered into their jwn barbed-wire, and were only extricated at the cost of a large' proportion of the. effectives. WORK OF THE RUSSIAN BRIGADE . (Received April 23, 9.20 aim.) fAEIS, 22nd April.!; A French semi-official report describes the First Russian Brigade's capture of the powerfully-fortified village of Cbiarcy; after a fierce struggle for two days against machine guns installed in cellars. SeVeii hundred and fifty prisoners jvere taken.. ■ ■ . ' ....