31 AUGUST 1918, Page 2

On Tuesday the British advance was maintained on the whole

front, while on its right General Debeny, pressing the enemy back on both sides of the Avre, occupied Laucourt on the Montdidier-Roye road and captured Roye and seven villages after desperate fighting. He took on Monday and Tuesday 1,100 prisoners, including 2 battalion commanders, and since the advance began he has taken over 11,000 prisoners and 240 guns. British troops made progress on both banks of the Somme, taking to the north the high ground east of Maricourt, just four miles south of " Devil's Wood," of bloodiest reputation, from which the enemy had again been driven. Here, to the south of Bapaume, and also to the north of it, the enemy fought hard, throwing in new divisions, which were all repulsed. Our men got well round Bapaume on its north-east outskirts, at Beugnatre, which was stormed, with heavy leases to the defenders. Further north the Canadians bit greedily into the German lines between the Scarpe and the Sensee, which was crossed by Scottish troops, who established themselves on the slopes of Fontaine-les-Croisilles, eight miles north of Bapaume.