OCR Text |
Show BRITISH TROOPS CAPTURE 19,000 PRISONERS IN ' WEEK GEIli oi in iLJJJlE Haig Reports Ar nce of Two Miles on a 20-Mile 20-Mile Front and Taking of Town of Roisel. French and Americans Continue Drive in Southern Sectors; Berlin Ber-lin Says "No News." By Universal .Service. LONDON", S-epU S. 3usz a month ao today the real "battle of 1? IS"' crashed loose with Rawlinson's stunning blow to the Teuton army facing Amiens. Up to that date Foch'3 campaign, begun July IS, had been a counter-offensive. Every hour of every day and night since the Germans have been withdrawing, withdraw-ing, retreating, fleeing1, with the allied line of attack gradually spreading to a front of 140 miles, from Ypres to the west of Rheims. At last, today the great German retreat re-treat began to show signs of a halt. The enemy has his back to the wail, a breach of which will seiid him staggering stagger-ing back to the Meuse and the Belgian frontier. Indications tonight are that he means to avert, or at least to stave o?.', such a disaster to liis armies of invasion. in-vasion. HUNS 37 MILES EAST OF AMIENS. Tonight bis center stands eabt of fie line St. Emille-Villeveque, fronting the St. Que n tin- be Catalet sector of hU "wall of fate." Both places are in British Brit-ish hands. As an illustration of what has happened hap-pened within the last thirty days it should be said that at Villeveque tho Germans are nearly thirty-seven miles to the east of Amiens. On August S they stood, east of Corbie, only a little more than ten miles from that great al:ic3 base. As this glorious month of the aiMed triumphal march winds up, the British, French and Americans are still hammering hammer-ing forward, but from a clean pursuit tho campaign is changing into a new battle, bat-tle, in which the foe apparently means to defend every foot in a desperate delaying de-laying combat. HAlG'S BULLETIN TELLS THE STORY. The most graphic description of what Is liappening is contained in Ilaig's night bulletin: "On the southern portion of the batUe-front batUe-front our troops have now entered the area of the defensive system constructed by us prior to the German March offensive. of-fensive. "Tho enemy is offering increased resistance re-sistance along these prepared defenses and sharp fighting has taken place today to-day at a number of places." But the day again brought the British new headway. They are ""pressing forward for-ward and have gained ground in the direction di-rection of Vermand. Hebescourt aod Epeliy." At Villeveque Lhe British are torjrht only six and a quarter miles west of St. Quentin, the central bulwark of the Germans' Ger-mans' Tast walL" At St. KrnJJIe they are five and a half miles southwest of De CatiUct. Meanwhile the French have hammered their way forward in the region of Soivais, south of the Oise, and the.ro they are less than two miles southwest of La Fere, another bastion In the German Ger-man main lino of resistance. GERMANS LAUNCH VICIOUS THRUSTS. j Fur t lie r south, where the French and ! Americans are driving toward Laon, the I southern hinge of the new German de-! de-! fense line, a hard struggle has set in. j The Germans launched some vicious counter-thrusts today, but they were crushed in the making. ! Far to the north, in Flanders, where the Germans' Went bused on IJl'.o hn.s been keeping reluctan t step with t'ie German retreating center and left, tiie were, also German cotmler-a t larks to- ( Continued on Fige Two. - GfMMlCf 01 THEIR OLD LIE (Continued from Page One.) day. These, too, broke down. At other points on that front the British made slight pains. Nineteen thousand prisoners were taken by the British alone in the first week in September, ltaig announced tonitrht. Roiset, ei.q-ht miles soul Invent of Le Oatalet. is unofficially reported in Frit-iph Frit-iph hands. Front dispaL'dies nlo state tha t the Crozat canal has been crossed near St. Simion, eight miles southwest of St. Quentin. St. Qucntin fell to the French yesterday. Hour Ripe for Stand. Added indication thai lauiendorff deems the hour ripe for a final stand is seen in his day report, which says: "We are In contact with the enemy on the line of Vennand, St. Simion -Crozat canal." A Universal Service staff correspondent wit h the A mer ica ns sont h of the Aisne confirms tonprht wha t lias been said in these dispatches for weeks: That t he prospective O'xman stand is to he made hacked on the bulwarks of lXmai, Onn-brai, Onn-brai, Ie Oatalet, St. Quentin, ,Ja Kcio and Iaon. What 31a y Happen. The ensuimr week, t bereft to. has in store one of t hree things : i One of the fiercest bat ties of the v. a r. : In wjifeh the Germans are r -solved t 1 fisht to the last ditch, prind; allv in the forefield of Oambrai, t. Quentin and I .a Fere, I lie tluee bulwarks mot clo,: menaced; a virtual discontinuance of the allied offensive, with Ko-h n -ntt-nt in himself with his triumpiis (f this y.-ar until he can strike with fresh, full for ce next sprint;; or ni attack on an i-ntirt-U new sector, as. for instance, tin- Ocrin.fi extreme left. In such an atMk Americans Ameri-cans may aain play a baduiti pa it. |