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Show Ufil IS Am French and American Guns Sever Railway Running North From Saponay and Keep Huns Going. ROADS LITTERED WITH AMMUNITION Dead Horses and Their Drivers Found Where They Fell When Struck by Shejls of Allies. WITH THE AMERICAN ARMY ON THE AISNE-MARXE FRONT, Aug. 3, 10 p. m. (Ey the Associated Press) American troops entered the southern part of Fismes today, while other forces of the allies hold the southern banks of the Aisne and Vesle rivers from Soissons Sois-sons to Fismes. Eastward it is almost a straight line through Courville, Branscourt, Courcelles and Champigny. The advance of the whole army was along a front of almost forty-five miles. To the east of Soissons the extension of the line northward along the Aisne, as well as the extension of the general line, makes it probable, in the opinion of military experts, that the Germans w5H hesitate before concentrating themselves for a stand along the plateau to the east between the Aisne and the Vesle, as the branch railroad from Sermoise to the north now is dominated by the allied al-lied guns. The broad field covered by the advance today includes at least fifty small towns and villages. RAILWAY SEVERED BY FRENCH AND AMERICAN GUNS WITH THE AMERICAN ARMY ON THE AISNE-M AR N E FRONT, Aug. 3 (By the Associated Press, morning) Before evacuating Saponay, the Germans endeavored in vain to remove locomotives and railway cars. The French and American Amer-ican heavy guns previously had severed the railway running north from Saponay and the Germans were unable to fiake repairs, owing to the continued shellin?. Saponay and the district extending to Fere-en-TarJcnois form an important railway center, of which the Germans made much iuse until the allied guns cut tho line. AN' hen the French entered Saponay Sa-ponay Friday, they found two locomotives locomo-tives which the Germans had attempted to destroy when they discovered that the railroad had been severed, and the railroad yards also had been damaged by German explosives. jWork of Repair Begins. Friday was the first day Fere-en-Tar-denois was not under the German artillery artil-lery since the Germans evacuated the village. The French and Americans already al-ready have started to restore the shell-swept shell-swept village. A group of American engineers en-gineers worked with the French repair-ins: repair-ins: the roads and streets. Previous to evacuating Fere-en-Tar-nois, the Germans virtually destroyed everything which could be made use of, including mirrors, beds and furniture. There was not a single house which had j not been shelled or dynamited. Prac- j tically the on'y things intact are the weathercock on the church steeple a nd ! ! the cobblestones of the streets. i The trees in the village square were i twisted as if by a cyclone by the fare- j well shells of the Germans. , German Signs. ! A lare sicn in German at the entrance of the church reads: i ! "Remove hats upon entering.' Down ! the street a German sign, stretched j j across the roadway, reads: J "Captured arms find loot must be stored ! here." The sign bears a hand pointing to where a house once (stood. At a crossroads near Saponay lay fivr-saddled fivr-saddled horses, apparently killed by i iv-same iv-same shell. Beside two of the horses 1 (Continued on Page Three.) WHOLE M DIG 01 45-MILE FRONT ; J (Cn tinned from Page One.) J lay dead Germans, just as they fell from i their saddles. The roadways are littered with ammunition, am-munition, wagons and dead horses, some of them with their drivers, as they fell when struck by the big shells of the Franco-American allies. Many of the wheat fields are partly harvested, with the wheat stacked, the Germans having reaped what the French peasants had planted. Here and there dots can be seen from the roadway Indicating where some German 'dropped. At one place a German killed by shrapnel had fallen head-first into a shell hole filled by a downpour of rain. Valley of Death. It waa into this valley of death that the French infantry came Friday morning, morn-ing, as the Germans withdrew through the valley north of Saponay. The French and American shells followed the Germans Ger-mans as they went. Prom the hill to the west and northwest of Saponay the French came from woods in a rainstorm from clouds so low that the treetops and clouds seemed to meet, and under their barrage the French marched into Saponay. Sa-ponay. To the northeast the Americans are advancing under the same conditions to the. woods east of the Forest of Nesles and to the valley running north of Saponay. It was here that the French and Americans met. |