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Show TUBE CEIIS DDIS IRE lepras Kaiser's Men Unable to Withstand the Onrush of Australians and Americans. MANY SURRENDER; OTHERS ARE SLAIN Delay in Next Hun Offensive Of-fensive Due in Part to Epidemic of Spanish Influenza. By PHILIP GIBBS. (Chicago Tribune-New York Times Cable, Copyright.) ' WAR CORRESPONDENTS' 'HEAD-QUARTERS, 'HEAD-QUARTERS, July 7. Early yesterday morning the Australians made a push forward beyond the line attained by their advance south of the Sommo on July 4, increasing the depth of their gain by about 400 yards on a front of over a mile. Most of this waa in the nature of No Man's land in which the enemy had established a few outposta. Elsewhere an English soldier went out alone to one of the enemy's outposts after it had been nnder the fire of our rifle grenades and tried to observe what effect had been done. Suddenly a German Ger-man officer and twelve men came out of a dugout and surrendered to him, and this one man marched them back. It is certain that three of the German Ger-man divisions who lost so heavily in the battle of July 4 when American companies fought with the Australians were utterly incapable of making a se-1 rious counter-attack and doubtless have been relieved by other troops. Spanish Influenza. I already have cited that the Spanish influenza has been spreading among them and we now know that many of their companies were down to a low strength on account of this epidemic, which seems rife in the German ranks. Some cases of typhoid are also reported re-ported among them. It would still be rash to assume that the delay in the next phase of the German offensive is due primarily to this sickness. As I have said, there must be other more potent reasons, but one is almost forced to the conclusion based on a good deal of evidence that this widespread outbreak out-break of influenza is Teally affecting the enemy's striking power and may hinder his plans for immediate operations. opera-tions. Of three divisions from which the Australians and their American comrades captured 1500 prisoners there can be nothing more heard for some time to come, or until they are refitted with new drafts. Their losses were very heavy. Defense Broken Down. They were at the mercy of our tanks and infantry who broke down their defense de-fense wherever men fought rather than make the signs of surrender. Our tanks were astonishing in their methods of maneuver aud aroused wild enthusiasm from the Australians, many of whom perhaps per-haps had boen a little prejudiced against these land ships after their first introduction. They advanced in the twilight of dawn without delay and were moved with skill and judgment to any point where the infantry needed their help. The ordinary ranks of Gorman Gor-man soldiers surrendered helpless wherever wher-ever the tanks crawled ronnd them with a sweep of fire from their flanks, but there were a number of machine gun nests where German teams used their weapons with their usual courage and deadly effect. It was against these that the tanks were supremely useful in saving the lives of our men and destroying destroy-ing these strong points. In one case they trampled down six machine guns in action and elsewhere one tank ran over three machine guns and, seeing a fourth still firing, turned and made straight for it and crushed it into the earth with its gunners. At another point a tank destroyed teams of five heavy machine guns and took the weapons inside as valuable trophies. Startling Tank Adventure. The most startling adventure they had this morning was when one of them steered from a mound of earth which the tank pilot shrewdly suspected as being a machine gun nest, though all was quiet there. It moved arouud the hillock, when suddenly out of a concealed con-cealed trench on the other side forty men ran out in a panic-stricken slato (Continued ou Pae Seven. V |