Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star MONDAY, JULY 9th, 1917. FRENCH OPERATIONS.

Hokitika Guardian, 9 July 1917, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star MONDAY, JULY 9th, 1917. FRENCH OPERATIONS.

The attack made bv the Crown Prince and his army on the French positions last week extended along the whole front from Jouy to east/of Chevreux. According to tho latest French official reports the latest attacks were everywhere defeated, tlie French succeeding in holding all their positions and inflicting veryheavy losses on the enemy. The fighting seems to have boon particularly violent west of Cerny close to the main road north to Laon where the Germans in one coun-ter-attack got hack to tho crest of the ridge andi away to the edge of the high ground, between Chevreux and Le which is nearly two miles north-easi, of tlie Ville aux Bois. It was predicted that sooner or later tho Geriu*n» wero bound to attack from Juvincourt and at Le Poteau because their loss if the Yillo aux Bois derived them of their stong«st point d'appui on flank of the Aisno position. The two woods that give their name to the village north of tho river, but were stringly fortified and were held by regiments with a special equipment of machine-guns. Apart from the fact that Ville aux supported the loft flank of the Germans north of the Aisne gap, the prominenoe on which it stands guards ih 6 so-called Aisne gap, where tho river valley, leaving the open Champagne country, contracts oetween the plateau north and south. Included in the various sucesses a particularly btlilliaJut (dpisods© was thy; copture of the Ville aux 'Bois. A correspondent says the attack on the two woodstho Bois des Buttes and the des Bodies on the farther side of it,., was mad© by a corps of townsmen recruited in and around Paris. They started a little before six in the morning, following so close on th© barrage fir© of tho 75’s that they were on tho enemy before they expected them, in Bois des Buttes and the Bois des Bodies which formed the front German lino there wore not many men, and only about three hundred prisoners were taken. In the Bois des Bodies, which with the village, was finally surrounded and taken on th© second day. the Germans wore very mudi thicker and the total number of prisoners amounted to over 2,000, besides several guns and big loot of machine-guns, and other arms and ammunition and stores of all kinds. Tho defences consisted mainly of machine-guns, the teams of which' fought with such desperation that they were all killed and of huge dug-outs, on© of which is one hundred and fifty yards long. Of one regiment every man and officer was taken except th© colonel, whose headquarters were a considerable distance to the rear. The French losses in the. action woie stated to he less than on© hundred killed.