The main French attack was in Champagne. There the French
on a front of twenty miles overran the German first-line defences between Auberive and Ville-sur- Tourbe—between the Suippe and the Aisne—piercing them to a depth varying from three-quarters of a mile to two and a half miles, driving the enemy back on his second lines, and capturing sixteen thousand unwounded prisoners, including three hundred officers, and twenty-four field-guns. Monday's despatches reported further progress and fresh captures, the French having maintained their advance in Artois, east of Souchez, while in Champagne they had reached the second line of German defences on a wide front. By way of effecting a diversion, the Crown Prince's Army made four violent infantry attacks on the French positions in the Argonne, but was repulsed with heavy losses. Sir John French reported the repulse of a number of counter-attacks north-west of Hulluch, and the progress of our offensive east of Loos. His despatch on Tuesday night reported further progress in this direction after severe fighting all the day, and described the exceptional strength of the second-line defences stormed by the British, who were then closely engaged with the enemy's third line. The number of prisoners exceeded three thousand, and sixty-one guns, twenty-one of them field- pieces, had been captured, apart from many more destroyed in the bombardment.
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