In the North, between Bapaume and Arras, heavy fighting went
on during the 2nd and 3rd January (Monday and Tuesday), of which the accounts from General Faidherbe's and General Man- teuffel's head-quarters are, as usual, very conflicting. Both sides claim to have taken a great number of prisoners. Neither claim to have taken any guns,—one gun captured by the Germans hav- ing been retaken by the French at the point of the bayonet. The French commander says that on the 2nd the result of the battle was indecisive, while on the 3rd he drove the Germane from all' their positions, which were a good way to the north of Bapaume, and pushed them back right into Bapaume. The German com- mander says that on the evening of the 3rd (Tuesday) his troops took two villages at the point of the bayonet, and that the French were in retreat. The troth seems to be that it was a drawn battle, the Germans having certainly been driven from their positions north of Bapaume, bat having held their positions in Bapaume, which was the key of the struggle. The retreat of the French seems only to have been a retreat of five or six miles for all the villages south of Boyelles, where the French took up their quarters, having been destroyed, and their stook of food being exhausted. That they did not accomplish the task of driving the Germans out of Bapaume is clear enough. Still, no French guns were lost, many German prisoners were made by the French, as well as many French prisoners by the Germans, and the fighting seems to have been remarkably equal.
