NEW OFFENSIVE BY THE BRITISH ARMY
FROM PHILIP GIBBS. BRITISH HEADQUARTERS (FRANCE), THURSDAY EVENING, Another day of close, fierce and difficult fighting is now in progress, having begun early this morning in the darkness, and going on down a long front in hot sunshine and dust and the smoke of innumerable shells. At many points our troops have succeeded splendidly, in spite of great resistance from fresh German regiments and intense artillery fire. The most important gains of the day are in the direction of the village of Cherisy, where good ground has been won by English battalions, and in Bullecourt, where street fighting is in progress. This thrusts the enemy by Fontaine-les-Croisilles, where he is still holding out, into a narrow pointed salient, which should be utterly untenable.
The way to Cherisy was taken rapidly without any serious check, although there was savage machine-gun fire at Fontaine-les-Croisilles. Our men found it very difficult to get forward, owing to the strength of the enemy’s defences south of the wood, and an abominable barrage of heavy shell fire. I can only obtain vague reports from this sector of the front, which forms a part of the old Hindenburg line, but it is clear that very stubborn fighting is happening here, and our men have bombed their way down six hundred yards of trench, and have established themselves round Fontaine Wood on the north-west side of the village. Further north fighting has carried our line out from Guémappe towards St. Rohart factory, just above Vis-en-Artois, but the signal rockets sent up here by our men may only come from advanced posts ahead of the main line.
South of the Scarpe, between Monehy and those two woods of illrepute, the Bois Vert and Bois du Sart, the battle has been similar to other struggles over the same ground, where the enemy stares across to our lines from good cover, and has every inch of earth registered by his guns, with a clear field of fire from his machineguns, of which he has great numbers in enfilade positions. English and Scottish troops attacked here this morning, and would not give way under a terrific fire, but fought forward in small bodies until they gained a line on the crest of Infantry Hill, and 300 yards short of the two woods, now linked together by the Germans with belts of wire and well-dug trenches.