THE BATTLES IN FRANCE.
COMPARATIVE LULL.
Yesterday afternoon the Press Bureau issued the following telegram from Field-Marshal Sir Douglas Haig: HEADQUARTERS (FRANCE), THURSDAY (11.10 A.M.). Early last night the enemy again endeavoured to attack our new positions in the neighbourhood of Gavrelle. His advancing troops were caught by our artillery barrage and completely repulsed. Elsewhere there is nothing of special interest to report. At 9.45 last night the following further despatch was issued: HEADQUARTERS (FRANCE), THURSDAY (8.24 P.M.). A party of the enemy which attempted to raid one of our posts south-east of Ypres early this morning was driven off with loss. There has been considerable artillery activity during the day on both sides at a number of points between St. Quentin and Arras and also in the neighbourhood of Ypres. Successful work was carried out by our aeroplanes yesterday, in spite of less favourable weather. In air-fighting, two German machines were brought down, one of them falling in our lines, and a third was driven down out of control. Three of our machines are missing.
OUR GLORIOUS AIRMEN.
FROM PHILIP GIBBS. BRITISH HEADQUARTERS (FRANCE), THURSDAY EVENING. There has been no great attack or counter-attack to-day east of Arras, after three days of battle. We hold good lines, with almost all the high and commanding positions south of the Scarpe, and the enemy has so far made no further effort to recapture the ground by sending out masses of men behind a heavy curtain fire. He has paid a heavy price already in these endeavours, and is reorganising and replacing his shattered divisions, and carrying back his wounded to join that vast army of cripples, blind men, and nerve-broken men who, in Germany, are hideously eloquent of the truth, and reveal the mockery of the official history. And there are other men in the German ranks like the old Hanoverian gentleman I mentioned yesterday, who sits sucking his pipe and saying: “The war is mad. It is all mad. It is mad, mad, mad.” I do not think we have seen the last of these German counterattacks between Gavrelle, north of the Scarpe, and Fontaine-lesGroisilles, southwards, although there are signs that the enemy is withdrawing his heavy guns farther back while he still has time, and is now firing at longer range. One thing seems certain to me. He must either regain some of his lost positions or get back another three miles or so to the main Hindenburg line, if he wishes to escape from enormous losses under our constant gunfire, directed by complete observation, of his present positions.
CONFLICTS IN THE AIR.
In the daily official reports the brief picture has been given of the battle which has raged in the skies while the earth men have been struggling below. Truly during these last few days our air service has fought very wonderfully, and some day one of these young men who go flying out to engage an enemy in the clouds or to search out and signal hostile batteries or to stoop low and scatter infantry and machine-gunners with a showers of bullets must write the tale of it all. There have been hours when I have heard overhead a continual tattoo of Lewis guns, and when a great sweep of sky has been tracked out with white shrapnel clouds following our flying squadrons engaged hotly with hostile machines.