of the French Army.]

The fighting here was made up of a series of isolated and desperate
hand-to-hand combats with bayonet and hand grenades, and, since the
Germans were, at many points, outflanked and enfiladed, their losses
were very heavy, for in the narrow trenches there was often no room
for escape, and the only alternative was death or surrender. In some
places the trenches presented a horrible sight, being heaped with
German corpses, many of whom had been blown to pieces by our
bombardment carried out previous to the original attack. By about noon
the total number of prisoners captured since the commencement of the
attack on Sunday had increased to 550.

On the extreme right the Germans were pressed back along their
communication trenches in such large numbers that they occasionally
formed an excellent mark for the machine guns in our own line to the
north of Givenchy, which were able to do great execution at certain
points.

By midday the total front of the "bite" taken by us out of the enemy's
position was almost exactly two miles long; but, as trenches and
isolated posts were taken and retaken several times, the exact
situation at any moment, as is usual in such cases, is somewhat
obscure. Further progress was made to the south during the afternoon
and after dark, and various posts and breastworks east of La Quinque
Rue, from which we had withdrawn the previous night, again fell into
our hands, although the enemy continued to hold some trenches in rear
of them. But they again formed an exposed salient, and were once more
temporarily evacuated by us.

At nightfall we held a continuous line embracing the whole of the
German original front trenches from the south of Festubert to
Richebourg-L'Avoue, and, in many places, were in possession of the
whole series of hostile entrenchments, with the exception of a few
supporting points and machine-gun posts in rear of the zone.

EAST OF FESTUBERT.

_The following dispatch was received on May 26, 1915, from Field
Marshal Sir John French, commanding in chief the British Army in the
field:_

The First Army continues to make progress east of Festubert. A
territorial division carried last night a group of German trenches,
capturing thirty-five prisoners, and this morning it captured one
officer, twenty-one men, and a machine gun.

Since May 16 the First Army has pierced the enemy's line on a total
front of over three miles. Of this the entire hostile front line