A GAIN AT GIVENCHY.
The following dispatch was received on June 4, 1915, from Field Marshal Sir John French, commanding in chief the British Army in the field:
On the night of the 30th of May we seized some outbuildings in the grounds of a ruined château at Hooge. Since then our trenches there have been subjected to a heavy bombardment.
Fighting on a small scale has been continuous. At one time we were forced to evacuate the buildings, taken by us, but last night we recaptured them.
Northeast of Givenchy last night we expelled the enemy from his trenches on a front of 200 yards, taking forty-eight prisoners. Our infantry, however, was unable to remain in occupation of these trenches after daylight, owing to the enemy fire.
Field Marshal Sir John French in a report, dated June 8, on the fighting along the British line, says:
The situation on our front has not changed since the last communication of June 4. There has been less activity on the part of the artillery.
On the 6th, in front of the Plogsteert wood, we successfully exploded a mine under the German trenches, destroying thirty yards of the parapet.
We have brought down two German aeroplanes, one opposite our right by gunfire, and the other in the neighborhood of Ypres, as the result of an engagement in the air with one of our aeroplanes.