In general, the French are resisting with dogged courage in their covering positions, which are beyond range of the enemy mine throwers. Evidence accumulates of the heaviness of the German losses in the recent fighting and of the disappearance of the shallow enthusiasm with which the offensive was begun. _In describing the progress of this assault Mr. Ferris wrote on June 10:_ The front of the attack was twenty miles in length, as compared with a front of thirty miles in the attack on the Chemin des Dames and fifty miles in the first phase of the offensive on March 21, and so far it is only on the central half of this smaller front that any considerable impression has been made on the French lines. Whatever may have been the exact design, there had not been this time the same extreme scruple to conceal troop movements, and for some days past the exceptional traffic of convoys, the suspicious activity of the enemy batteries in the correction of ranges and other signs had given warning of what was afoot. HEAVIER GERMAN LOSSES One consequence was that, when the German infantry advanced yesterday morning, it had to meet a volume of fire very different from that which had answered the surprises of St. Quentin and the Aisne Heights. French gunners had thoroughly studied the ground before them and were all ready to deluge every path of approach directly that graycoat waves appeared. From the beginning, therefore, the German losses have been heavier than on the earlier occasions, and this must affect the development of the action. In other respects the now familiar von Hutier manoeuvre appears to have been repeated, shock battalions carrying light machine guns and machine rifles concentrating upon local breaches in our line and leaving the task of cleaning up islands of resistance to the support troops while they pressed on rapidly to exploit the first success. It will probably be found that the operation was begun with about fifteen divisions in the line, approximately 150,000 men, giving a density of one division to a mile and a third. Faced with a force superior in all arms, long resistance of the first line is impossible, but it is significant that at 8 o'clock yesterday morning, that is after four hours of a terrible storm of gas and explosive shells, followed by four hours of hand-to-hand struggle, our allies were still in a large part of the field fighting within what is called the zone of advanced posts, and only the centre had fallen back on the zone of principal resistance. Plemont Hill, overlooking Lassigny, was still holding out at that hour, although the front had lain immediately beneath it. The villages of Le Fretoy and Courcelles were lost during the morning, but were recovered by counterattacks, in which the French troops showed the highest spirit.