_Friday, April 5._--Heavy attacks by the enemy are in progress north of
the Somme, from Albert to Aveluy Wood. Further north there is separate
fighting in progress round about the village of Ayette--such a wretched
little place of brickdust and broken walls when I saw it last on the way
from Arras to Bapaume--and the enemy is trying to recapture this, his
fire reaching to villages several thousand yards behind the British
front.
The British troops in this district are defending their positions
resolutely, and the first reports indicate that the German storm troops
are suffering under their machine-gun fire, after being shelled in their
assembly places by heavy and field artillery.