CAMPAIGN IN WESTERN EUROPE.
April 1—Artillery duels are in progress in the Woevre district; French occupy the village of Fey-en-Haye to the west of the Forest of Le Prêtre; outpost engagements take place near Lunéville.
April 2—Heavy artillery fighting is on between the Meuse and the Moselle; night infantry fighting takes place in the Forest of Le Prêtre.
April 3—Germans repulse French in Forest of Le Prêtre; Germans repulse French attack on heights west of Mülhausen; French make progress with mining operations southwest of Péronne; French check a German attempt to debouch near Lassigny; French repulse attacks in Upper Alsace.
April 4—Germans take from the Belgians the village of Drei Grachten on the west side of the Yser, this being the first time the Germans have gained a foothold on the west bank for weeks; French make progress in the Woevre district; French take village of Regniéville, west of Fey-en-Haye; Germans repulse French charges in Forest of Le Prêtre.
April 5—French capture three successive lines of trenches at the Forest of Ailly, near St. Mihiel; Germans repulse Belgians near Drei Grachten; Germans repulse French attempt to advance in the Argonne Forest and Germans gain ground in the Forest of Le Prêtre; French are advancing in Champagne; French gain ground in the Hurlus district and beyond the Camp de Chalons, capturing some of the Germans' prepared positions; bombardment of Rheims is being continued night and day, and it is reported that one-third of the houses have been destroyed and another one-third damaged.
April 6—French are conducting a sustained offensive between the Meuse and Moselle in an effort to dislodge Germans from St. Mihiel; French gain trenches in the Wood of Ailly; French make progress near Maizeray and in the Forest of Le Prêtre; strong French attacks at points east of Verdun are repulsed, but French occupy village of Gussainville.
April 7—French, continuing extensive operations, make gains in the Woevre district and southward between St. Mihiel and Pont-à-Mousson; east of Verdun the French take two lines of trenches, and repulse German counter-attacks; Germans report that French offensive, as a whole, is thus far a failure.
April 8—French official report states that since April 4 the French offensive between the Meuse and the Moselle has resulted in important gains on the heights of the Orne, on the heights of the Meuse at Les Eparges, in the Ailly Wood, and in the Southern Woevre between the Forest of Mortmare and the Forest of Le Prêtre, the Germans losing heavily; the German report is at variance with French claims and states that the French have failed; Belgians report that the western side of the Yser Canal, in the direction of Drei Grachten, is completely free of Germans.
April 9—Desperate fighting continues on the heights of the Meuse and along the St. Mihiel-Pont-à-Mousson front; French announce complete occupation of Les Eparges, one of their chief objectives; French say Germans were repulsed fifteen times in the Forest of Mortmare; Berlin report is at sharp variance with the French, stating that all French attacks in the Meuse region have been repulsed with heavy loss; Germans make gains in Champagne; Germans retake Drei Grachten from Belgians.
April 10—French extend their gains in the Woevre; French push forward on St. Mihiel-Pont-à-Mousson front in attempt to cut German communications; French hold Les Eparges firmly, where, according to the official French report, the Germans have lost 30,000 men in two months; Germans repulse French between the Orne and the heights of the Meuse, and in the Forest of Le Prêtre; French attacks on the village of Bezange la Grande fail.
April 11—French state that they maintain their gains of previous days in the St. Mihiel region, though Germans recapture some of their own lost trenches in Mortmare Wood; French repulse attacks in the Forest of Le Prêtre, though the Germans capture some machine guns; a strong French attack on German positions north of Combres results in failure; German main army headquarters denies that the recent French attacks in the St. Mihiel region have been successful; Germans take three villages from the Belgians; Germans are vigorously attacking positions recently taken from them by the French on Hartmanns-Weilerkopf; furious German attacks are made near Albert, being a continuation of an attack begun yesterday; Germans blow up some French trenches by mines; heavy German losses, due to the pounding of six miles of French artillery, occur in an infantry advance.
April 12—Lively fighting in the Woevre district; Germans attack Les Eparges, but are repulsed; French make gains at Courie; Germans have successes in close-quarter fighting in the Forests of Ailly and Le Prêtre; German sappers throw letters into British trenches saying they are tired of fighting and expressing hopes for peace.
April 13—French make slight gains east of Berry-au-Bac; Germans repulse French attacks at several points; Germans gain ground in the Forest of Le Prêtre; Germans are moving up reinforcements in the region of Thionville and Metz.
April 14—French penetrate the German line at Marcheville, but are driven out by counter-attacks; French extend their front in the Forest of Ailly, and make progress in the Forest of Mortmare; French artillery checks a German attack at Les Eparges; activity is renewed at Berry-au-Bac; Germans are strengthening the forts at Istein, on the Rhine.
April 15—The whole spur northeast of Notre Dame de Lorette has been carried by the French with the bayonet; French gain at Bagatelle in the Argonne; French repulse German counter-attacks at Les Eparges; Germans repulse French attacks at Marcheville, at the Forest of Le Prêtre, and elsewhere.
April 16—French repulse German attacks north of Arras and in the St. Mihiel region.
April 17—French make progress in the Vosges on both sides of the Fecht River; in Champagne, northeast of Perthes, the Germans explode mines under French trenches; Germans repulse French near Flirey; French repulse Germans at Notre Dame de Lorette; in the Valley of the Aisne French heavy artillery bombards the caves of Pasly, used as German shelters.
April 18—Germans repulse British attack in the hills southeast of Ypres; Germans capture an advanced French position in the Vosges southwest of Stossweier; French have successes in the Valley of the Aisne, at the Bois de St. Mord, and in Champagne, to the northwest of Perthes; French make progress in region of Schnepfen-Riethkopf in Alsace.
April 19—British line south of Ypres has been pushed forward three miles after much hard fighting; British take Hill 60, an important strategic point, lying two miles south of Zillebeke; German counter-attacks are repulsed; British attacks are repulsed between Ypres and Comines; French make gains along the Fecht River, and capture a division of mountain artillery; French gain the summit of Burgkorpfeld, and are advancing on the north bank of the Fecht; French repulse counter-attacks at Les Eparges; Germans repulse French attacks at Combres.
April 20—Heavy artillery fighting in Champagne and the Argonne; French infantry attack fails north of Four-de-Paris; French make slight progress in the Forest of Mortmare; Germans storm and reoccupy the village of Embermenil, west of Avrecourt.
April 21—Violent German counter-attacks are being made on Hill 60, but all have been repulsed, "with great loss to the enemy," according to the British; Germans capture a French battery near Rheims; French repulse German attacks at several points between the Meuse and the Moselle; French repulse attack in Alsace east of Hartmanns-Weilerkopf; Germans repulse French attack north of Four-de-Paris; Germans repulse French attack extending over a considerable front at Flirey; German gain in the Forest of Le Prêtre.
April 22—A great new battle is being fought at Ypres, Germans taking a strong offensive from the northeast; they drive the Allies back to the Ypres Canal, taking 6,000 prisoners and 35 guns; at Steenstraete and Het Sase the Germans force their way across the canal and establish themselves on the west bank; Germans capture villages of Langemarck, Steenstraete, Het Sase, and Pilken; Ypres is being heavily bombarded; British and French official reports declare that at one point where the French fell back they did so because of asphyxiating gas used by the Germans; the Germans, on the contrary, have claimed several times recently that the French have been using asphyxiating bombs at various points; Germans continue tremendous attacks on Hill 60, with what is declared to be one of the fiercest artillery bombardments in history, but the British still hold it; German troops are pouring through Belgium to the Ypres front; Germans gain ground south of La Bassée; Germans repulse French attack in the western part of the Forest of Le Prêtre; French repulse attack at Bagatelle, in the Argonne; French gain ground near St. Mihiel; French continue to advance on both banks of the Fecht River; official French report states that all the Ailly woods are now in the hands of the French after several days' fighting in the early part of April; infantry attacks were preceded by a concentrated artillery fire, at one point the French firing 20,000 shells in 90 minutes.
April 23—French make progress at Forstat and near St. Mihiel; artillery duels at Combres, St. Mihiel, Apremont, and northeast of Flirey; French take advanced German trenches between Ailly and Apremont.
April 24—One of the most furious battles of the war is now raging north of Ypres, where the Allies have regained some of the ground recently lost; Germans are pouring more troops into Flanders to push the attack; the Canadians make a brilliant counter-attack, regaining part of the ground this division lost, and retake four Canadian 4.7-inch guns which they had lost; the Canadians are highly praised in the British War Office report; Germans make further gains at another point on the line and they seize Lizerne on the west bank of the Ypres Canal; the French report says the French and Belgians recaptured Lizerne later in the day; the British have consolidated their position on Hill 60; fierce fighting is in progress in the Ailly wood; French repulse another attack on Les Eparges and an attack south of the Forest of Parroy; Germans repel a number of French attacks between the Meuse and the Moselle; Germans make progress in the Forest of Le Prêtre.
April 25—Germans gain more ground at Ypres and begin a terrific drive near La Bassée; Germans capture villages of St. Julien and Kersselaere and advance toward Grafenstafel, taking British prisoners and machine guns; Allies repulse Germans at several other points; Germans repulse French attack in the Argonne and win in the Meuse hills, southwest of Combres, taking seventeen cannon and 1,000 prisoners; London reports that clouds of chlorine were released from bottles by the Germans during the recent fighting at Ypres, the gas being borne by the wind to the French trenches, killing many men.
April 26—Allies rally and check the German drive near Ypres, fresh German assaults north and northeast of the city being beaten off; Berlin says that the Germans retain the west bank of the Yser, while London reports that the Allies have retaken it; Germans still hold Lizerne, on the west bank of the canal; Germans take from the French the summit of Hartmanns-Weilerkopf, capturing 750 men and four machine guns; French repulse German attack at Notre Dame de Lorette; fighting is in progress on the heights of the Meuse; German attack on Les Eparges fails.
April 27—Allies repulse German attack northeast of Ypres; British make progress near St. Julien; French retake Het Sase; Belgians repel three attacks south of Dixmude, and charge Germans with again using asphyxiating gases; Allies retake Lizerne; Germans still hold the bridgehead on the left bank of the canal just east of Lizerne; French state they have retaken the summit of Hartmanns-Weilerkopf, but the Germans declare all French attacks failed; German attacks near Les Eparges fail.
April 28—Allies are delivering counter-attacks in an attempt to regain the ground lost north and northeast of Ypres; Germans are bringing up reinforcements and hold firmly their present lines; scarcely a house is left standing in Ypres; Germans take French trenches near Beauséjour in Champagne; French repulse Germans in the Argonne, near Marie Thérèse; both the Germans and French claim to be in possession of Hartmanns-Weilerkopf; French gain ground on heights of the Meuse; Germans repulse strong French night attack in the Forest of Le Prêtre.
April 29—Germans repulse Allies north of Ypres; German official report states Germans have taken sixty-three guns in Ypres fighting; Germans repulse French night attacks at Le Mesnil in Champagne; Germans gain ground on heights of the Meuse; French repulse Germans at Les Eparges.
April 30—French gain ground north of Ypres, taking two lines of trenches; Belgians have repulsed a German attack from Steenstraete; Germans have fortified and hold bridgeheads on the west bank of Ypres Canal near Steenstraete and Het Sase and on the east bank of the canal north of Ypres; Germans repel a charge of Turcos and Zouaves; a huge German gun shells Dunkirk from behind the German lines near Belgian coast, about twenty-two miles away; twenty persons are killed and forty-five wounded; British airmen locate the gun and bombard it, while allied warships attack from the sea; French state that they hold the summit of Hartmanns-Weilerkopf; 500 shells fall in Rheims; French fail in an attempt in the Champagne district to win back their former positions north of Le Mesnil; Germans repulse French charge north of Flirey.