Paris, May 23, JVI hundreds of planes zoomed overhead dropping bombs and strafing troops of both sides, the Allies and Germans were locked in furious, combat on two battlefields stretching from Valenciennes to Cambrai and the Somme Valley today. with about 2,000,000 men involved in the gigantic battle, military experts believed that the outcome would play a decisive role in determining the future of the war.
Announcing that the struggles were "continuing with the greatest violence," the French High Command confirmed that French forces had progressed to the outskirts of Cambrai.
"Artillery combats hav become violent in various other points of the front, principally in the regions of Att riy, Longuyon and north of Nied," the communique said. High French military sources revealed the terrific Valenciennes-Cambrai battle, begun yesterday, was developing most satisfactorily for the French. They added that although the main positions were hardly changed since the battle started, wild fluctuations of lines have ocr-irred.
Military authorities hinted that the main French Army along the Somme River had received important. rein forcements and also that the Allies in Belgium who were doing their utmost to out through to the south were doing well.
One military expert suggested that the question now arose of how small but powerful German mobile detachments would be able to open a number of corridors in areas in which they were really engulfed by the French.
"Meanwhile, the "Excelsior" revealed that Allied counter-espionage agents had. arrested over 200 German spies Belgium. where they had helped Germans to advance by confusing the defence in Ardennes—United Press.
They reported that the battle had developed into a series of large-scale Htinning combats "with the heaviest fection concentrated in the Cambrai 'Although foreign reports were received that the Allies had recaptured 'Amiens and, Sedan as well as Arras, the French 'High Command did not mention either' Sedan or Amiens,
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