However the situation may shape itself here further, the Second French Army Corps and the other French forces brought into action here have neither been able to force the intended break in one line at the Tranchée nor to maintain the dominating height to the southwest of Les Eparges against the surprise storming attack carried on with unparalleled courage by our battle-tried troops.

REPORT CONTINUED.

From the German Great Headquarters by the Wolff Telegraphic Bureau, the following appeared in the Frankfurter Zeitung of July 20:

Our last report of events on the heights of the Meuse closed with the comment that further undertakings of the French for the recapture of the important positions near Les Eparges, which had been taken from them were to be expected. The next day brought the confirmation. Since then the embittered battles there have continued. The terrible effect of the heavy artillery of both sides and of aerial and subterranean mines has converted the battleground at Les Eparges and Grande Tranchée de Calonne, as at Combres, into a chaos of stone heaps, rocks, tree stumps and scrub, interwoven with tangles of barbed wire, which had been shot through, and with destroyed fighting material of all sorts. In between were pits of explosions which had torn up the ground into veritable ravines. Here the task is a heavy one for the defender to find positions in trenches capable of defense, and for the attacker to work his way through this field of wreckage.

However monotonous the following description of the battles at Les Eparges may sound, yet for him who had to live through them they were fearfully exciting and a terribly wearing experience. These battles bear eloquent testimony to the mental and moral worth of our troops, who for days had to endure the hostile fire in their trenches and still hold themselves ready in positions filled in with earth and wreckage to make front against the enemy wherever he might dare to attempt to advance.

After a heavy artillery fire directed

at our position from Les Eparges to beyond the Tranchée, two attacks occurred simultaneously on the 27th of June, at noon, one of them against our newly won positions southwest of Les Eparges, the other to the east of the Tranchée. Both were repulsed. In the evening the enemy again attacked, this time against the whole extent of our north front. This attack also was repulsed.

During the night preceding the 28th the French reinforced their artillery with additional guns of heavy calibre. These were emplaced for concentrated fire on our new position at Les Eparges, and the position at the Tranchée. Then on the 28th in the earliest dawn they opened a murderous fire against our entire forward and supporting lines. Shortly after 8 A. M. they undertook an attack from the Sonvaux ravine against our lines on the ridge at Les Eparges which we were able to repulse without difficulty. Four other attacks made in the course of the day against the same point met with similar lack of success. The day again had brought the enemy very heavy losses, but not the slightest gains. At the Tranchée no attacks were undertaken by either side on this day.

In the night preceding the 29th took place an extraordinarily heavy artillery surprise attack on our positions from Combres to beyond the Tranchée. A French storming operation seemed to be planned. Our fire, however, prevented its execution. Only to the east of the Tranchée the French in the night pushed forward on a narrow front. The attack broke down in our fire. All day long then our positions lay under heavy bombardment. At 12 o'clock noon the enemy then renewed his attacks at Les Eparges. For this he employed especially strong forces, apparently withdrawn from other places. But not even with their help did he succeed in breaking into our positions. This attack, as were three others made in the course of the afternoon, was again repulsed with heavy losses to the French. During the rest of the day and through the whole night the enemy covered our entire positions with an extraordinarily heavy fire. Also all roads leading into the Côtes Loraines, as well as the vil

lages on these heights and those at their foot on the edge of the plain of Woevre, which, however, for a long time had not been inhabited by us, were again plentifully showered with fire.

Again on the 30th of June an attempt was made at an attack under continued strong bombardment. Then the enemy apparently saw the hopelessness of his ever repeated attacks. Perhaps, too, his heavy losses or want of ammunition was responsible for the fact that, from the evening of the last day of June onward, his efforts to retake the lost heights decreased. The first of July passed in comparative quiet. Any one, however, who should have approached our positions on the heights of the Meuse as a stranger to the conditions of this sort of fighting might well have believed that new battles were in progress for this much-fought-for point. For even when the fire here slackens down any one who is not accustomed to these uninterrupted battles at close range and to the echoing of the fire of all calibres in these ravines gets the impression of a regular large battle. Neither day nor night can there said to be quiet there. Even as the French in their desperate efforts make every sacrifice to secure gains, though ever so small, that shall in some measure make up for the failures they have suffered there, so we also do not cease to take under effective fire their ever repeated offensive efforts by timely bombardments of the villages in which they gather their troops for the attack, of their columns preparing to storm, and of their trenches of the front and the supporting lines, from which the forces for the attack are rushed forward.

Here the fliers have an especially valuable task. In these wooded hills, which make direct observation extremely difficult and in great part excludes it entirely, leaders and troops must depend on the reports which our brave airmen supply. For hours they circle over the sections assigned to them to be cleared up and report with signs agreed upon in advance every movement of the hostile batteries or of single guns. The enemy, for his part, knows the danger which the hostile fliers brings. He knows quite

well that shortly he will be the object of attentions from the foe's artillery. The repulse of the airmen, therefore, is a task undertaken with zeal by both sides. In addition to the batteries specially assigned for this purpose and to the infantry and machine gun detachments, this task recently has fallen to special fighting aeroplanes.

success.

We have already on another occasion pointed out that the German fliers, undoubtedly, have gained the ascendency over the enemy's air machines in aerial battles. Here, too, between the Meuse and the Moselle we can record similar Recently one of our fighting fliers succeeded in shooting down a French aeroplane in the neighborhood of Essey. Wherever German fighting aeroplanes appear the French fliers, since this and other successes, now without hesitation yield the air and in this admit their inferiority.

On the 2d of July we had opportunity to observe at length the activity of our own and French fliers. As the events of the next following day showed, the cnemy had strengthened his artillery for combatting our positions on the Meuse heights, and employed the next day especially in obtaining the range for his new batteries, by firing test shots at our positions and roads of approach with the help of the fliers, in so far as our watchful battle aeroplanes permitted. him. We therefore had to count on the continuation of the fighting in this section. During that night, in fact, the enemy increased his fire not only against the points which hitherto had been the rain objects of attack, but also against the neighboring positions on the Combres Heights, and further to the northeast in the plain, as far as Marcheville and Maizeray.

The 3d of July brought renewed infantry attacks, introduced each time by heavy artillery fire, especially with bombs carrying asphyxiating gases, and accompanied by a hail of hand grenades, for the employment of which the Frenchmen latterly show a special fondness. Four times on this day the enemy violently attacked Les Eparges, and as many times was driven with bloody heads into flight.

It then seemed as if the impossibility of penetrating here had finally been realized and all further attempts given up, for the 4th and 5th of July brought only artillery fighting. But again on the evening of the 5th the increasing violence of the enemy's fire gave reason

to expect the repetition of infantry attacks.

After two attempts late in the evening of the 5th to break into our positions had failed because of the watchfulness of our grenadiers, the 6th of July brought heavy fighting throughout the entire day.

IN THE ANZAC ZONE. An Associated Press dispatch from London dated Aug. 11, 1915, made this statement:

W

HILE the Russians are fighting desperately to extricate themselves from the cordon of Austro-German troops which is steadily pressing them more closely in Poland, their allies are working feverishly and with considerable success to open the Dardanelles, through which they hope to pour into Russia the muchneeded munitions of war.

Since Saturday night, [Aug. 7,] when fresh British forces were landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula, there has been almost continuous fighting on the Krithia Road.

In these operations Australians and New Zealanders in the "Anzac region (a name taken from the initial letters of the words "Australia-New Zealand Army Corps ") have co-operated with new forces to the north. Following up the successes of the troops on the Krithia Road and those to the north of the "Anzac zone, the Australians and New Zealanders took the offensive yesterday and succeeded in trebling the area formerly held by them. Their comrades to the north, who assisted them, made no further progress, however.

These actions are believed here to be preliminary to a much more ambitious attempt which has been planned by the Anglo-French commanders to sweep the Turks before them. Very heavy losses, which already have been inflicted on the

Turks, have had a discouraging effect upon the Ottoman troops, according to reports from Greece.

An official British statement given out on Aug. 11 said:

The latest report from Sir Ian Hamilton states that severe fighting continued yesterday in the Gallipoli Peninsula, mainly in the Anzac zone (on the western side of the peninsula) and in that to the north. The positions occupied were slightly varied in places, but the general result is that the area held at Anzac has been nearly trebled, owing chiefly to the gallantry and dash of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.

While to the north no further progress has yet been made, the troops have inflicted heavy losses on the enemy, and the French battleship St. Louis is reported to have put out of action five out of six guns in the Asiatic batteries.

A GERMAN REPORT.

In a Constantinople dispatch of Aug. 9 by way of Berlin, transmitted by wireless to Sayville, L. I., on Aug. 11, appeared the following:

Enver Pasha, the Turkish Minister of War, said today that, according to his information, the Entente Allies in their latest operations at the Dardanelles had landed three divisions of troops, comprising about 50,000 men. The losses among them, however, he asserted, had already been very heavy.

Enver Pasha's statement was made in an interview with a correspondent of

The Associated Press. The Turkish War Minister said:

"I am fully confident that we will be able to keep the Allies in check on the Gallipoli Peninsula, even if other large reinforcements are coming. We knew

that the Allies' action of two days ago was due, and we prepared for it, with the result that we were not caught napping. "According to my information, the Allies landed three divisions, about 50,000 No doubt part of them no longer

men.

count, considering the heavy losses they sustained in attacks incident to the new offensive. The allied losses have been very heavy so far in this new attempt to force the Dardanelles."

Enver Pasha had just had a conference with his Chief of Staff at which the final report from the Gallipoli Peninsula operations was discussed. The War Minister seemed in the best of spirits, as he had just received news that a Turkish aeroplane had destroyed a submarine of the Entente Allies near Bulair. Reviewing the events at Sedd-el-Bahr during the last two days, he said:

"The Allies experienced dogged resistance in their attempts to force the Turkish positions at Sedd-el-Bahr. Two regiments attacking our centre there were annihilated with the exception of about sixty men, who were captured.

ALLIED FORCES JOINED.

A special cable from London to THE NEW YORK TIMES reported on Aug. 17:

Evidence of the improvement of the allied positions at the Dardanelles, both on land and sea, is found in a dispatch from Athens published in The Daily Chronicle this morning. The announcement that the fleet has been actively cooperating with the landing parties, particularly the latest, that at Suvla Bay, which has joined hands with the forces already in position on the heights of Sari Bair, gives ground for the belief that the allied naval commanders can now afford to disregard the menace of

German submarines which sent them to cover for a considerable period.

The Chronicle's correspondent telegraphs:

"The new successful landing on the Gallipoli Peninsula at Suvla Bay and the manner in which it was effected cannot fail to exercise a moral effect on the enemy. The landing took place on the foreshore in front of Salt Lake. Only

a small observation force of Turks was on the spot, the Turks having been led by recent activities and reports to concentrate their forces on the Asiatic side of the Dardanelles and at Smyrna, where they thought attacks probable.

"Our whole landing force, with its ammunition, baggage, and artillery, reached shore practically without opposition and with only very few casualties. The force immediately advanced and quickly seized the positions which it was planned should be taken. There strong intrenched positions were organized. The right wing was thrown out and a junction effected with the left wing of our forces established before Sari Bair. Our new positions threaten the Turks' communications by land with the extremity of the peninsula.

"The enemy eventually brought up forces to attack the newly landed troops, but these were easily repulsed with serious loss. This defeat of the enemy enabled our forces still further to consolidate their positions.

"The fleet during the last few days has been very active."

A French officer, in a letter to his wife, mentions a diversion from shells, that of digging for Greek antiquities in the soil of the Gallipoli Peninsula. The following note will prove full of interest for students of Greek archaeology. "We are on a Greek necropolis of the highest antiquity," he writes, some five or six centuries before our era. In digging

66

trenches we come on enormous stones which resound. They are the lids of tombs. With great care (but not always) we remove the covering stone. Underneath is the interior of a stone coffin, which we empty little by little. Grain by grain for centuries the soil has gently intruded. Inside there is a skeleton more or less preserved.