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Show PROGRESS OF THE WAR. By using their "tanks' ' or land warships war-ships and by omitting the usual artillery artil-lery preparation, thus introducing the element of surprise, the British armies operating between Arras on the north and St. Quentin on the south, obtained the most brilliant victory in France since the battle of the Marn-e. "Within forty-eight hours the British had advanced ad-vanced half as far as in the six months of fighting on the Somme and virtually as far as in this season's fighting at Tpres. The fighting did not extend quite as far north as Arrae nor quite as far south as St. Quentin, but the offensive was launched on a front of thirty-two miles between these towns. The point of departure from the original lines on the north 16 Queant and on the south Le Vergnier. Today the now line describes de-scribes an arc between these points, the farthest point of advance boine a little to the north of the central radius. In other words the center of the line was carried forward far into the Hinden-burg Hinden-burg defense zone, while at the two extreme ex-treme points of departure from the old line little advance was made. This was in accordance with the plan. In a general way the greatest momentum mo-mentum was obtained in the direction of (.'ambrai, which is the c-hief objective of the drive. The fighting began soon after dawn laM Tuesday and was in full swing by 7 o'clock. In tho ceutcr the British made for Rihccourt and Marco-ing, Marco-ing, which were captured. The' pressed on to Jlesnieres and obtained footings on the east of tho Canal du N'ord, which runs north and south. These contingents contin-gents then pressed along both the east and west banks of the canal in the direction di-rection of Cambrai. On tho left of center the troops directed di-rected their efforts toward Anoeaux, a few miles southwest of Cambrai on the Bapaume-Oambrai road. Northwest of Anneaux tbey captured the outskirts of Bonrlon wood. On the extreme left they took Moeuvres and the great tunnel tun-nel near Bullecourt. Not all of these points were held even on the first day. The Germans began ,to resist stent Iv when the points we have just named were i cached. The British were driven back from Anneaux. An-neaux. but retook it. They lost Moeuvres i and were pressed back at Bourlon wood. On the second day they went ; forward again, driving beyond Anneaux and capturing Fontaine Notre Dame. Troops from the Russian front had been , hurriedly thrust forward from Cambrai 1 and retook Fontaine and some neigh- j boring country. On the second and third days the I British, holding the line at the center and the gains on their right wing, exerted ex-erted their greatest pressure toward the north, trying to flank the enemy out of Moeuvres. They took a hill to the east of Moeuvres which commanded that point and much of the neighboring country. Apparently thay have Moeuvres either in their possession or practically surrounded, for Berlin reports re-ports that thev have attacked lnchy, which is slightly to the northwest. The Germans are making every effort ef-fort to hold Cambrai, which is one of the chief points of . support of the Hin-denburg Hin-denburg line and is a depot for supplies. sup-plies. It is reported that the Germans have been removing war materials from the town for several days. . This would be advisable even if they had no intention of abandoning it, for now it is under the fire of the British. On Friday and Saturday the British again struggled forward in the direction direc-tion of Cambrai. At the same time they worked their way through Bourlon wood. No report has yet been made on the German losses of war materials except a statement that more than 100 guns have been captured. The British loss in the first few days was a few tanks and 8000 men killed or wounded. Meantime the Germans hal lost 0000 in prisoners alone. It was estimated thai; at the end of the third day 50,000 Germans had .been killed, wounded or captured. Since then the Teuton casualties must lave climbed toward the 75,000 mark. Cavalry played an unexpectedly important im-portant role. General Haig, an old cavalry soldier, has always preserved his cavalry formations, believing that the day would come when they could be put to effective use. In the latest battle they appear to have supplemented supplement-ed the work of the tanks. At several places when the tanks were held up ,by the direct fire of cannon the cavalry charged the guns, sabering the crews and capturing the guns. This saved the taDks from destruction. The cavalry cav-alry also aided in the capture of fleeing flee-ing Germans, who were quickly rounded up and sent to the rear. Two or three villages were captured by the cavalry without infantry assistance. The Germans strove frantically to concentrate enough meu on the Cambrai Cam-brai front to stem the tidal wave. In this they were but partly successful. In two days they were able to bring up only four new divisions, or fewer than 50,000 reinforcements on a front of more than thirty miles. This in itself it-self testifies to the complete surprise of the Germans. They evidently had greatly thinned their lines between the Arras zone and St. Quentin. The region was undermanned and undergunned, despite de-spite the fact that the Germans had been pouring troops from the Bussian front into Belgium as well as into Italy. These troops had been swung farther to the north, in the expectation expecta-tion that the British would make a new drive at Passchendaele ridge, in an effort to get out into the Flanders Flan-ders lowlands and make a break toward the submarine bases. When, therefore, the sudden blow came on a front far to the south, Von Hindenburg was in no situation quickly to reinforce the line attacked. He did the best he could by ordering his troops to make the stoutest stout-est resistance ' possible all along the line. This gave him a little time in which to send in new forces, but he was unable to bring up a sufficient number of guns to permit a transition from the defensive to an offensive. Nor has he yet been able to do more thau act on the defensive. The savage counter-attacks which retook villages were only temporarily successful, for the British pressure has now taken them beyond nearly all the villages captured cap-tured in the first rush. Cambrai is in a bad way. If the Germans can hold it they will deserve much credit. In one sense it is already al-ready in the hands of the British, because be-cause they can keep it under their artillery fire, but to gain a strategic advantage for further operations they must actually take it. Then they can swing still farther to the north, along the road to Douai, and render a vast region untenable by the enemy. The Italians have shown courage and firmness beyond all praise. Their initial defeat was caused by treachery. J Their line snapped as if it had been a straw, and they quickly lost 2500 guns. Now with immcasurcably less gun j power they arc holding back' even more powerful enemy drives. If they j can hold on for four or five days more i they will be supported by. the French I and perhaps the British armies. ' The Italian line can be divided into ! three parts. The first can be designat- j ed as the line of the Piave river, end- I ing in the mountains. The next is the ' line in the mountains between the Piave and Brcnta rivers. This may be called the center. To the left is the Asiago plateau. The Austro-Hungarians tried to get across the Piave at a number of points, and actually succeeded at three, but in j fierce battles they were annihilated and the Piave line fully restored to Roman possession. Meantime the Germans and ' Austria OS had been concentrating against the center in the mountains. The chief defense in this region is Monte Grappa, but the Italians held a number of eminences to the north and east. It was necessary that the enemy j should take Monte CorneUc, Monte MonlVuera. Moutc Pertica and Monle ! Toniua before they could attack the ! stronghold of Monte Grappa. Day after af-ter clay the most furious fighting proceeded pro-ceeded in this region, and also along the Asiago plateau. The Italians did not rely upon the defensive. They repeat -ledly counter-attacked, suffering the j heaviest losses. The Germans succeeded succeed-ed in taking Monte Cornelle, Monte Monfcnera and Monte Tomba. and also other ground. But the Romans did not give up hope. Thev constantly sent in reinforcements and continued their counter-attacks, despite tho terrible ! slaughter. It was fortunate for them that the exposed situation of the Aus-tro-Germans caused the invaders losses at least as heavy. In the last day or two the Italians appear to have pressed the enemy back and to have retaken j much of Monte Tomba and Monte Mon- ! fenera, but the enemy pressure has not buen relaxed. Snow has set in all through the mouutaius, rendering the task of the -invaders more trying, for they are : experiencing much difficulty in bring-ing bring-ing up guns and ammunition. General Allenby has continued to advance ad-vance in Palestine, but is feeling his way with caution. After his left wing had marched rapidly northward along the coast to Jaffa, his center and right were brought forward slowly through the hill country in the direction of I Jerusalem. Several battles were fought, especially at the center, and the Turks were driven back. As the center advanced ad-vanced it was directed northeastward in an effort to encircle Jerusalem, and made some progress, but at one point the mounted troops were repulsed by the Turks. All the time, however, General Allenby has been getting nearer near-er to the Holy City, the fall of which appears to be imminent. The British admiralty announced the loss of seventeen ships, ten of more than 1600 ton's. A small warship has been sunk in the Mediterranean. An American destroyer was sunk in collision with a' transport. Two American Ameri-can destroyers conducted a successful battle against a submarine. One of them, dropped a depth bomb, which blew in the U-boat's hull. The submersible came to the surface and was peppered with shots. When the ' U-boat was taken in tow it was in such a condition condi-tion that it could not be saved and it sank a few minutes later. Most of the German crew were rescued. |