Great Day On The Somme. (From Our Special Correspondent.) BRITISH HEADQUARTERS, JULY 16. The Empiro should be proud of her Armies to-day. The second stage of the great battlo has opened with as brilliant a success as British arms havo ever achieved. History will, I be- lieve, acknowledge it. Shortly beforo daylight on Friday morning (July 14) we delivered our attack on tho main German second line positions on a front of about 5,000 yards, from a point south-east of Pozi6res to beforo Longueval. Wo carried tho positions on the whole front, and pushed through to a depth at one point of approxinately two miles. And for the fist time for a year and a half in this stationary war, British cavalry came into action. We have taken three villages, those of Longueval, Baentin-le-Grand, and Bazentin-le- Petit, and the Villa Contalmaison, which, though in front of the German second line proper, had been converted by the enemy into a very strong advanced posi- tion. We have cleaned out and aro in pos- session of tho wholo of the two Bazentin Woods, and the much disputed Bois des Tronei. Beyond Longueval is a largo wood known as Delvile Wood. Wo hold all of this except a very small post at tho northern corner. Most important of all, we have pushed into High Wood, which is at the highest point of ground in all this region, and most of it is already ours. [Yesterday's communiqu from Headquarters states that our troops have been withdrawn from this wood, the purposo of its occupation having been accom- plished.] It is difffcult at this moment to trace a de- finite line for our present front. Such a line, however, we havo from the eastem edge of the B3ois des Tr6nes, northward to Delville Wood, passing round that wood and through tho northern edge of it, running abovo tho vilago of Longueval, north-westward to EHigh Wood, where it cuts through the top just below the extreme north anglo. Thence it runs, a littlo south of west, to the top of tho village of Bazentin le Petit. Along this last bit of the lino very fierce fight- ing is now reported to be going on. To the west of it, howover, we seem to have pushed on, be- yond the parallel of this line, half way to tho village of Martinpuich. It is A very notable and triumphant advance, and A very severe blow to the enemy. So far as is known at the moment, we havo inflicted much heavier losses than we have suffered, and have taken about 2,000 prisoners. The capture of guns, both heavy howitzers and field guns, is considerable. A GREAT ARC OF FLAME. 'FRIAY EVEmSO, JULY 14. It has beeu a wonderful and thrilling day, a day truly fuU of glorious life-and death-and so crowded with unforgettable experiences that already this morning seems weeks away. In the closing sentences of my letter yesterday I said that we then fairly confronted the main German second line, but I did not imagino that we had any fixed intention of staying there. By 3 o'clock this morning, while it was still night, we-three other correspondents and my- self-woro at a certain point which we know would be the best vantage ground from which to watch the battle; and it is unnecessary to say that by now we know each ridge and hollow of this region pretty well. It was inevitably some distance from the actual fighting; too far, amid the smoke and twilight of the morning, to sc: tho front line of our infantry going into action, but near enough so that guns were all round and behind us, and in the darkness it seemed as if the heavens above were full of the whistle and flurry of invisiblo wings from the shells passing over- head. I have already desnrbed bombardments enough; but as a spectacle this was more stupendous than any that we have yet seen, and our men engaged in tho fight as well as the Ger- man prisoners. all say that they have knovn nothing liko it. It was a thick jight, the sky veiled in clouds, mottled and hurrying clouds, through which only one planet shono serene and steauily, high up in the estern sky. But tho wonderful and appalling thing was the belt of flamo which fringed a great arc of the horizon before us. It was not, of course, a steady famc, but it was one which never went out, rising cad falling, flahing. and flickering, half dimmod with its own smoke, against which the staba and jets of fire of the bursting shells fared out in- tensely white or dully orange. Out of it all, now here now there, rose like fountains the great balls of star shells and signal lights-theirs or our-- white and crimson and green. The noiso of the shells was terrific, and when the gans nearest to us spoko not only the air but the earth beneath us shook. All the whilo too (though on, shrinks from mcntioning them again) overhead, amid all tho clamour and shock, in the darkness and no Ic1!s as night paled to day, the larks sng. Only now nd again would the song be audible, but wben- ever there was an interval between the roaring of the nearer guns, above all the more distant tumult, it came down clear and very beautiful by contrast. Nor was the lark the only bird that was awako, for elbos by us, somewhere in the dark, a quail kept ceaselessly urging us-or the guns-to be Quick-bc-quick. Far off to the right the shimmoring in the sky told us where the beautiful French guns were busy. On tho left the region of Ovillers-La Boisselle was like a volcano in violent eruption. But it was on the ground immediately before us that the chief interest centred, for there, between 3 o'clock and 3.30, the great attempt was to be mado to drive home our success of the past 10 days by a smashing blow at tho enemy's econd line. RAPID PREPARATION. It must be remembered that it was only from tho day before that we had really been in pos- session of Mamnet Wood and Contalmaison..Ater thoso were won there still remained minor posi- tion4 to be cleared out. Hardly had we been 24 hours fairly cqnfronting the actual enemy second line. We had worked-oh, how our men had worked!-during those precious hours to get ready for this new attack. To the enemy we hoped that it would seem incredible that wo could yet be ready. Surely, ho must be saying to himself, the contemptible little Army will need time to consolidate itself and sit down to consider before it dares to come on again. We had done all we could to confuse him by thc ferocity of spasmodic bombardments which had given him no rest, and we had worked, worked, worked ; and I believe, wheni the history of this war comes to be coolly written, that the rapidity with which we de- livered this new and tremcndous blow on the second line will bo recognized as a great piece of gencralship and of organization. The whole front was to be smashed through. Beyond lay the villages of Bazentin-le-Grand and Bazentin-lc-Petit, each with its great shelter- ing wood, and wc know whAt these woods may mean. How much of tho front should wo really bo able to break ? Should we get through at all or would it be a sheer physical impossibility ? And then, these villages and woods, with, as tho ultimate high-water mark of our hopes, the end of the long rise culminating in the commanding position of Iligh Wood. If only we could dream of getting there ! It is a suspense which amounts ahnost to torture to watch an attempt such as this being made, and to be quite unable clearly to see what goes on; for that, under tho condi- tionr of a modern battle, is impossible. When once your men havo gone forward through the smoko and tho enemy's barrages, cverything is mystery, except in so far as they may be able to notify their positions and their needs by pre- arranged codes and so forth, or as runners 'with dispatches may be able to get back through that deadly zone. THE ATTACK BEGUN. We could read the signs fairly well. We knew when, at just before 3.30, our men went forward anci wo could follow our artillery fire as it was pushed back to let our men go on. We could guess the enemy's awakening to the situation by the frenzied storm of shells which he poured betwocn us and our front line. We knew that our men had gone through, and we saw that they did not come back. By 4 o'clock the sky began to lighten. Dimly against and through the clouds, as soon as there was any hopo of seeing anything, our first aero- plane came droning low overhead straight across the raging belt in front of us, an extraordinarily impressive siglL Behind us, in the twilight, our kitc balloons began to ascend, alternately en- gulfed in clouds and clearly visible. Where had been allblackness and flatne before us, the earth began to differentiate itself from the sky, with some faint colour showing in the grass and the dark mass of Mametz Wood and the pale lines of trench and of Contalmaison's ruins. Over to tho right, towards Longueval, woe saw the glow of a great fire, with huge flames licking up and a circle of red reflected in the clouds above, and it stayed and grew. Nearer to us on the left we were lighting signal fires behind our lines, while in the growing light tho flash of tho shells began to pale and the wreathing banks of smoke grew nmore visible. More aeroplanes passed overhead; always our own, never one from the enemy's side. Still the deafening roar of the guns went on, though it seemed as if there could be nothing left to break or kill, and when, by about 4.30, it was almost full daylight-though without any sign of a sun-the clamour and the turmoil were not one whit less terrible than they had been each minuto sineowe came. And still, whenover their voices could be heard, the lark sang and the quail went on urging, Quick-bc-quick L Quick-bc-quick I. GERMAN FRONT BROKEN. Wo know that our men were through; and we bolieved that they had not come back. But it was only later, when bulletins from this division and from that, from one corps and another, came in that we began to understand how splendid-how incredible-our first success hal been. We had failed nowhere. We had swept tho whole much-vaunted German second line, in spite of all its long fortification, over every rod on which we had attacked it. We had gone on -moro than once our men having to wait im- patiently for our artillery fire ahead of them to push on-into and through both Bazentinu-l Petit and Bazentin-le-Grand villages; and both woods 'were ours. We were in Longueval. And before noon we heard that our advanced patrob had touched High Wood itself. Wbether we could hold all these was another matter to be proved hereafter. The essential fact was that we had struck at the enemy where, after two years of preparation, he had, during the last 10 days, tnassed men and guns and machine- guns to resist us-all that Germany in all her strength could do-and his front had broken and splintered into bits before us. Not that we leanmed these tidings all at once; for, after returning to-our quarter for a short interval, woe-o other corresodent and myu -pushed out again to seo how far we could follow up on the heels of victory. An hour before noon weo vero out again beyond where we had been at dawn, and since then the day has been a bewildering chaos of experiences that ono can neves forget, threading one's way through all the amazing sights of the British Armies in motion, so. gigantic and so superbly orderly, past and among batteries whecre the detonation of each gunrx smotc one with a definito and stunning shock ; through tho dust and intcr- ninable rhythmic processions of marching men, of horses and guns and transport columns ; over successivo lines of trenches and through ruined villages whicli a few days ago were Cerman; nieeting details of prisoners being marched back and our own wounded. And tlio heat, tho dust, the noise, the suffering, and all were glorified by the thrill of victory that was in the air. RETURNING FROM THE BATTLE. The plan is, on such an occasion, to push up with your motor-car as far as the regulations or the enemy will let you go. Then you leave the car in some place whero it is least likely to get in tho way of our traffic or the enemy's shells, and go on foot. We vent by the %way whero the wounded were dribbling back to the first dressing station. It is a dreadful sicht, and grows none the less dreadful by familiarity the liglhtly wounded coming walking down, their wounds in head or limb hastily done up in a handkerchief or with th,o bandage of an emer- gency dressing by themselves or by a comrade, thosc more scrionsly hurt but still able to limp or walk being helped by another with an arm round the waist; somo carried pick-a-back; saddest of all, those who can only come on stretchers, some unconscious, somo able to move an arm or to look up and srnile-they will always smile-but terrible sights all of them. If blood be the price of Liberty, Lord God, wo hI' paid in full. Mr. Kipling will pardon the change of a word. But we have not yet paid in full, for this thing has to go on, on till the German han tasted to the dregs the bitterness which he has brought upon the world. fHappily to-day, from everything that I can learn, the losses which we have incurred have been iess than we had any right to expect. In the first part of the day they were almost illogically light. In the afternoon, when the enemy seems to have in a mcasure rallied from the first shock and when we camre up against the more strongly fortified of the pcitions behind his front lines, wo suffered more severely. But for the tenth time in these later operations of this wvar it has been shown that in a victorious and successful attack it is not the attacking side which loses nost seriously. There is no doubt that we have killed and wounded far more of the enemy than have been killed or wounded among us ; and, in addition, there are the prisoners. OUR PRISONERS. I myself have seen about 800 prisoners, all taken to-day and all taken by one of our divi- sions, and mostly of 16th, 190tlh. 91st, and 184th Regiments. Something over 300 were in one barbed-wire " cage," all captured in the early morning. Then wo saw several smaller parties on their way down, and, finally, a detail of 70 who were being employed at the drmssing station mentioned to act as stretcher-bearers, &c., carry- ing our wounded. Late in the afternoon we saw sometlhing over 700 together whom, to be on the safc side. I assumo to have included all those (except the party impressed for Red Cross work) whom we bad swen before. These had been col- lected and wore being marched along a railway trnek, a whole battalion in strength; and they were good to see. One strango thing is to see tho German wounded and ouir wounded coming on after at- tention at the dressing station, in ambulances tonether. Thero is absolute impartiality in their treatment. I saw in ono ambulanco fivo of our mnen and three Germans ; in another two Ger- rnans and the rest all ours-these all being slightly wounded and able to sit up side by side. In another I saw a British and a German officer together. One of the first things which prisoners want to do after they arc taken and fed and rested is to write home. Somo thousands of letters have been written by them since this battlo began, and I gather from thoso whose duty it has been to read these letters for purposes of consorship that there has hardly been one which has not testi- fied to the writer's astonishment at the kindness vith which ho has been treated. It is probably uscless to suppose that theo letters will have any effect in Germany or influence in any way the German treatment of our men. There are somo here who would 'change tho method and niete out to our prisoners the same treatment as wo are given in Germany. But I believe that the vast majority of Britons will hold -that we are right. The German will probably remain a Ger- mnan ; but it is best we should continue to bo ourselves. It is our precedent and not that of the Hun which is going to influence posterity; and if we fell entirely to his level the future of humanity would be dark. I havo given a very imperfect account of what has happened-even of what I have scen-to- day. But how can one describe a tenth of it ? It is France's Day to-day, and we have used it to the glory of France and the Allies of France. GALLANT LINE REGIMENTS. SATURDAY, JULY 15. Thore is not much of fact to add to wlhat I have already -written, even if your columns had space for it. It is too early to get coherent ac- counts of the operations of yesterday as a whole or of any individual section of them, and the time has not come when we are at liberty to mention the names of regi- ments engaged. It would also be plainly un- just if I mentioned some without mentioning all, who did cqually well, and the least .nilitary of lay readers will understand that if all were men- tioned we should be making the enemy a present of information of tho exact composition of our battle line. That information must not be given him yet awhile. All that can be said at the moment is that it is once more the stanch British line regiments which have done the work. They have had no assistance of any other infantry troops, except of the South Africans. All parts of tho British Isles have had a share-Scotsmen, Irishmen, Welshmen, and English, and there are many counties which are going to thrill with pride when they know how the men who bear their name have carried themselves. It is an extraordinary and, I believe, unpre- cedented thing in operations of such magnitude and fighting of so terrible a character. that, not yesterday only, but ever since this battle began, there have been absolutely no stragglers. One hears the same of every battalion in each division on all parts of tho front. And in say- ing this I am not merely flattering national prido or endeavouring to impress neutrals or strike terror into the enemy or anything else. I am merely stating thle simple fact. Our men have never flinched, town-bred or country-bred, miner, clerk, factory hand, farmer's labourer, and all-Duke's son and cook's son alike, they have done their job, so far as human beings could do it, with a gallantry and a deter- mination which has never faltered. THE GROUND FOUGHT OVER. It is necessary to explain briefly, perhaps, the importance of yesterday's achievement-not its moral importance but its actual military and strategic advantage. Going on from our former successes wo smashed in, almost in our stride, as it were, tho German front over the wvhole area at which e e struck. That in itself is much. But, if you have a contour map of the region, you will see that, as I have explained rouglhly before, from the low line-the shallow valley of a little tribu- tary of the River Ancre-which runs eastward from below Albert by the villages of Moaulte, Bevordel-Becourt, Fricourt, Mlamnetz, and Car- noy, the ground from a general level of about 250ft. rises steadily towards tho north-cast. It is full of dips and hollows, but in general the height has risen to about 300ft. at the lower end of blametz Wood. The hiigh point to the north end of the wood, between it and Contal- mnaison, is nearly 350ft. It is about 400ft. where the German second line ran, and it is 420ft. and 430ft. at Bazentin-le-Grand and Bazentin-le- Petit. Still ascending, it touches 450ft,. on both sides of the lower end of High Wood and, just to the left of the wood, between it and the village of Alartinpuich, it reaches the greatest height of about 470ft. FI'rom that point it begins to fall away again. By Coureclette the altitude has already decreased to 420ft. At Flers, on the right, it is the same, and at Gueudecourt just beyond it has sunk to less than 350ft. It does tnot again touch the height of the ground about High Wood for a long distance. So far, then, since these operations began, we have been fighting uphill ; not steeply nor always perceptibly ; but a very little rise, especially for artillery and observation purposes, is all-im- portant. Now, if we can enthrone ourselves firmly on the ridge which is crowned by High I Wood, the enemy is dowvnhill below us. Ho no longer commnands all our positions. But we com- mand his. Ono understands why he had made the ground over which we have, fought in these last 10 days into one continuous fortifle4 position. We know from a multitude of sources that he never believed that we could carry it. TRENCHES CARRIED IN THE DARK. One hears to-day from wounded mcn, from prisoners, and from officers who saw bits of the fighting all sorts of confusing scraps of accounts of what went on here and there yesterday, from which no coherent story can be pieced together. Apparently in the dark we carried the front lino trenches everywhere in that first triumphant rush. It is said that at one point a short stretch of trench was left untouched, our men sweeping by on either hand, and the men in it had later to bo bombed out or taken prisoners. Our losses here were comparatively very small, and so keen were our men, so far were they ahead of schedule time, that they had to wait at one plaeo till tho artillery in front of them (which, of course, must be worked by tho clock) lifted to the German positions beyond and enabled them to go on. Beyond the lines tho faces of the two Bazentin woods were very strongly held with machine- guns and rifles. Here our losses were more serious, but still, as such things go, tho price we paid was light. One hears of 15 machine-guns on the face of one small wood and of six being captured in the corner of another. It was still not daylight, and apparently we overwhelmed and irresistibly overran the enemy before he could pull himself together. He must have known that we would soon attack upon this line, but apparently the actual attack with its tremendous impetuosity took him more or less. by surprise. Along the front of his line the wire entangle- ments were in places intact, and there our men climbed over and under and through them in the dark. Perhaps, behind this barricade, the enemy thought himself safer than he was. That the guns had done their work admirably on each of tho positions behind seems to bo the uni- versal testimony, and the prisoners speak of the shelling as having been indescribablo, and the enemy casualties from artillery fire before the actual attack must, in the course of the last two days, have been very heavy. A CAVALRY CHARGE. The most dramatic incident of all the en- gagement, however, was that some of our eavalry, after more than 18 months of waiting, came into action, not on a very largo scale, but effectively; and with success. Knowing, as one has known, how they have longed for an opportunity to do their proper work, in their immobility and silence, they have been the very embodiment of patience and re- straint. Later in the day they worked up, and, after some difficulty, got across the trenches, and made their way to the neighbourhood of the bottom of High Wood, covering the left of our advance on Longueval. Here they camc under machine-gun fire, and lost some horses, but the casualtics to men were immaterial, and, best of all, they got their chance. It was to a troop of the Dragoon Guards and one of the Deccan Horse that the chance came. The enemy was sniping them from among growing corn, and, Dragoon Guards on the left and Deccan Horse on the right, they went through those cornfields joyfully, the one with tho lance the other with the sabre. When the horses really came on them the Germans it is said in many cases threw themselves down, and literally shrieked for mercy. Some clutched desperately at horses' legs as they went by. Both lance and sabre did their work cleanly and thoroughly, and, with the exception of 34 prisoners wlho, between them, they brought back, there were no Germans alive of those who had been among the corn. When they had done their little job the cavalry sent their horses back, and turned in and dug trenches for the infantry to take over. On our extreme right the Bois des Tr6nes seems to have been the scene of very stern fight- ing. I have spoken of the wood before as being in effect dead ground which neither side could occupy, or wvould be able to occupy until tho time came when we had pushed the enemy out of other positions. That time seems to have come and Tr6nes Wood is now wholly in our hands. Bnt it has been, perhaps, the sceno of as much bloodshed in the last four or five days as any part of all this blood-soaked field. You have already heard from official sources of the gallantry 'with which a small party of tho West Kent Regiment held on to a bit of the wood, in spite of all the enemy could do, until oir men yesterday camo in and relieved them. THE AREA OF FIGHTING. The front covered by our attack on the Ger- man line did not reach to Pozieres on the left, whero tho enemy has a sort of advanced second lino in front of tho villago, while the ordinary course of tho main second lino system runs through and behind it. The actual front on which we broke through was about 5,000 yards. Be- yond this actual area of the attack, however, there was simultaneously very severo fighting in, the Ovillers-La Boisselle-Pozi6res region, and along the Bapaume Road. I believe that Ovillers is really in our hands at last, but it has been so reported onceo before, and in this 'case ply in- formation only comes from wounded men who claim to have been among thoso who actually bombed tho Ccrmans out of their last strong- hold (which I have mentioned in former dis- vatches) at tho top of the village. However men in such cases tell what they think is true, it is never quito safe to trust them, for no man knows what may havo passed after ho was wounded and carried from the field. The enemy seems in the course of yesterday afternoon and night and again this morning to have counter-attacked witlh groat determination and dash at more than one point. I cannot henr that anywlhere we havo lost ground. At some places we seem to have dug ourselves in solidly. But wo cannot yet bo said to havo firmly esta- blished any continuous line consolidating all our now positions, except as I have outlined it above. What can be said, and that with certainty, is that the whole operation has been so far most brilliant and succe.sful beyond anything which we had dared to hopo. GREAT THE DAY ON SOMME. S WIFT BRITISH A DVANCE. GERMAN SECOND LINE SWEPT.