Immediately behind the zone of mutual observation, all the humming activities of arms are proceeding with a freedom unknown in the days of trench warfare, partly because this is the nature of the war of movement and partly because, like other services, the air squadrons are dispersed and the German airmen cannot obtain more than local and momentary equality. And amid all the flow of troops and guns, the pitching of camps, the laying of field telegraphs, shifting of hospitals and hangars, bringing up of munitions and supplies, there is an air of calm over the whole scene that would astonish those who see the offensive only as it is concentrated in a newspaper sheet. FIERCE FIGHTING JUNE 3 _In his dispatch dated June 4 Mr. Perris described the fighting on the 3d, which was the last desperate attempt of the Germans to advance in that phase. He wrote:_ The battle blazed out afresh last night along and south of the upper Ourcq, and the struggle is raging with violence, due, in part, to the fact that both sides have brought up many guns and in part to the desperation of the Germans as once more they see victory slipping out of their hands. Tactically, the chief feature today is the attempt of the enemy to support the attack on the Ourcq by a thrust further south along its tributary, the Clignon, a small stream following a marshy valley westward to the middle course of the Ourcq. There the most bitter combats have taken place and continue about the villages of Bouresches, Torcy, and Veuilly-la-Poterie. At the latter point the Germans tried to get around to the southward, but were effectually stopped in the Veuilly Wood, a mile south of the village, by Americans. In all this fighting the enemy's losses have been very severe, for in every case we had the best defensive positions, well supported by machine guns and 75s. I spoke yesterday of the importance of the French stand to the southwest of Soissons, both as limiting the enemy's access to the Aisne Valley and as narrowing his approach to the Ourcq Valley. A slight withdrawal to the line of the villages of Pernant, Saconin, Missy, and Vaucastille yesterday did not materially weaken this buttress of the front. Nor is it seriously weakened by another short withdrawal this morning between Pernant and Missy, for which the enemy has had to pay dearly. We still hold Tresnes and Faverolles, and the prospects of von Boehm reaching Villers-Cotterets are not bright enough to cheer the drooping spirits of Berlin. AMERICANS AT WORK Another small warning of the rising power of American arms was given on the Marne yesterday morning, when a fresh band of machine gunners helped a French regiment to break an attempt to cross the river. Between the Oise and the Aisne homeric conflicts are reported from the neighborhood of Carlepont Wood, in which the hill called Mont de Choisy, after having been lost and recaptured five times, remains in French hands.