FIGHTING-IN PROGRESS AT ALL POINTS

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 98, 25 April 1917, Page 7

FIGHTING-IN PROGRESS AT ALL POINTS

>. SECOND PHASE COMMENCED

HURRICANE QF ARTILLERY FIRE

,(B? TELEIJBAPII.—TJNrTBD''PRESS ASSOCIATION.r-COPTRIGHT,) (ATJSTBALJAN-NEW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION.) LONDON, 23rd April. Mr. Philip Gibbs writes "The battle of Arras has entered .upon the second phase, which is harder than the battle of 9th April. This morning, before five o'clock, the English, Scotsh, and Welsh attacked eastwards of Arras, between Gavrelle, Gueniappe, Fontaine, and' Croisilles, which ia the last switch line in this vicinity between us and the main Hindenburg line. So far the day has been in our favour. We have gained important ground, inflicting great losses, and taken one thousand prisoners- in the neighbourhood of Fontaine. Everywhere there has been hard fighting, as the enemy was aware.that he .would be attacked, and soon had his guns moved up. The Germans were told $o hold oh afr all costs, and brought up many, new batteries, and massed their machine guns in the villages and trenches covering the line of our advance. Fighting is in progress at all points. Sometimes our men are beaten back, then, re-attacking, go forward. Gavrelle certainly is ours, and this breaks the 80-called Oppy line, northwards of the Scarpe. We are now beyond Guemappe, southwards of the Scarpe, though the fighting is proceeding around the village on the extreme right. The enemy suffered disaster northwards of Croisilles, {where we took prisoners and killed many. At the outset the enemy resisted fiercely. Lnst night was terribly cold. Out men lay in the shell holes and Shallow trenches, and suffered severely. "The British bombardment, which was et^ady throughout the night, broke tout in a hurricane of fire at dawn. The artillery barrage was brilliantly successful, directly the attack commenced, but the British troops had hardly risen from their shell-holes and ditolujs before ' the German counter-barrage started like a furnace-blast, while machine-gun fire from two small woods in front of Monqhy and Guemappe also commenced. The enemy's trenches below Monchy were defended by enfilade fire from redoubts along the' Cambrai road. When the British troops swept down, the Germans quickly, fled to the cover of the wood of Boisausart. The British elsewhere along the Scarpe were held tip for some time by an intense machine-gim fire, and had to await the arrival of a tank. Still further north, the Scottish battalions quickly advanced towards Roeux, passing a fortified farm and chemical works, where the enemy lost very heavily in trying to escape from the -ruins. The capture of Gavrelle jjjas the most, brilliant episode on the left side of the attack. The Germans had eat great store by Guem'appe, now a heap of bricks and debris, for the importance of its position upon the Cambrai road. The Third Bavarian Division held the village, where deadly hand-to-hand fighting occurred. The 101 st Pomeranian Regiment was in the neighbourhood of Fon'taine-lez-Croisilles. The Pomeranians for soveral days had been heavily bombarded,-and their nerves were so shaken that they came out of- their dug-outs, and five hundred of them surrendered without attempting to fight. Between the Cojeul and Sendee Rivers, where the British advanced along a curved line following 1 the shape of the rising ground, we took at least twelve, hundred prisoners and a battery of field

guns."