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Show HAIG CONTINUES TO SMASH HUNS; ENEMY RETREATS ON 50-MILE LINE HUGE LOSS INFLICTED BN TEUTONS J Enemy Falling Back in j a Desperate Attempt ! to Avert Disaster; 10,-j 10,-j 000 Prisoners Taken. Retreating Columns Cut ! to Pieces by Steady Artillery Fire; French Continue to Advance. PAKIS. Sept. 3. French troops hare crossed the Somme near Epenancourt, according to the war office announcement tonight. They have also gained a foothold on th east side of the Canal du Nord. j Bv tbe Associated Pres. From Flanders to .Soissons the I British, Frent-h and Americans are keeping up without cessation their j strong offensive tactics. The Germans (are still giving ground. Seemingly i realizing his peril, the eaemr is putting j forth every effort to avert complete : disaster. Territory long held by the enemy has been restored. Thousands of Germans j have been sent behind the lines to I swell the great throng in prison camps and many of the enemy's dead lying upon the battlefield testify to his heavy casualties. ' Retreating columns of the Germans I have been vut to pieces by the British I artillery from captured vantage points before which the enemy was compellod to pass unsheltered from tho fire of the British gunners. From the region around Ajrras south, ward to Peronne the British Jme has moved forward everywhere since the famous Drocourt-Queant defenso line was overwhelmed and left in the rear. On a front of virtually fifty miles, from just below Ypres to a point near Feronne, on the Somme, the German armies are in retreat. BRITISH N EARING CANAL DU NORD. Kastward of the Irocourt line the British now are Hearing the Canal da Xord, and Douai, Yalenc.icnr.es and Cambrai have been further encroached upon by English, Canadian and Australian Aus-tralian troops. Fast of Feronne tha British line has been steadily pushed forward. Numerous towns and villages have fallen into British hands, among them Queant, at the southern end of the 1 "ocourt-Queaut line. To the south the French, along the Canal du Xord. are giving the enemv no rest and gradually arc blotting out the remaining portion c- the salient north of Xoyon. while on the Soissons sector the French and Americans now are in control of the entire plateau dominating tbo Aisne, the Chemin-des-Paracs and the roads to Laon and La-Fere. La-Fere. In Flanders the Br-.'sh hare penetrated pene-trated the outskirts of Lens, the famous fa-mous coal mining city iu northera France, and farther south, in the Ly salient, have taken R'chcbourg St. Yaast and established themselves on j the line of the La Bassee red and be-I be-I tweeu there and Estaires, having cap- tured the last named place. Steen-j Steen-j wcrck and Wulverghcm also are in British hands, and thus the great sa-j sa-j licnt is virtually wiped out. HAIG MENACES NEW HUN LINE. j Unofficial dispatches yar that in the i region . jiliCRst of Arras, tbe Germans ; arc retiring to a new switch lire run-Initio run-Initio from Brebieres, five mile? south-j south-j eat of Drocourt, southward to Moctir-j Moctir-j rep. where it joins the II iodenbur line Continued pp-P 33ii GERMANS FLEEING 1 BRITISH FHOI Conttmtod from rftfio Ono.) near (iraineourt. If this proves true tho now lino already seems t uieod, ' as t-'iold Marshal llaig's men virtually are upon it at l.eeluso and Kuinau-courU Kuinau-courU soul heast of Arras, and almost abreast of it at Barnllo, t hreo miles north of Moouvros. Already tho taking of 10,000 prisoners prison-ers by Uxo British in their advance in reported, and the Herman casualties in killed and wounded are declared to havo been notably heavy, as their thickly massed forces feTt tlje foreo of tho British Wow. So pronounced and so speedy is tho Herman retirement that it sec inn as if tho enemy, if he has not met with disaster, dis-aster, is perilously near tho vorgo of one. Closing Lys Salient. In what appears like an effort to escape es-cape in time, the scope of the German retirement, which had been proocetMng sim ot' what leisurely both north anI south of the S o in m e, has lee n m;ukei 1 y a--ccntiiatod north of tha t river. In this movement the Important, French coal mining city of Lens, fit the sates of which the Hritlyh pounded vatuly, virtually a'l last year, has been evacuated, the British moving in. though the German command must have t v c n ex pe e i i n k an alt ack on the Himlenburg switch line, which the Prli-ish Prli-ish had closely approached In their earlier advances, it apparently was not expoeted at tK moment. Tho Gornwna fMin to have been surprised at tho quickness with which Hai&'s OamuUans aod otbor Brit-ish Brit-ish forces, after ilgbttrqir their way up to the line, organized a crushing attack against the line luwtf. This morning, on the twenty-mile front where the - nt -ish are mainly engaged, tboy axe reported to have advanced a maximum of four mile. This seems to emphasize the cleanness clean-ness of the break, ami, with tlie lanre caprures of prtsonera, points to the demoralisation de-moralisation of the German forevs. It is too early to estimate what effect the present drive may ul tlmately produce. pro-duce. The fall of Douai-Cunbn-it. wMcb now seems not IraprobaMe In the near future. wOuW put the entire Germnn hue out of joint between the Nortli sea nnd Rheitns. however, and would be likely to force the evacuation of a preat part of iurthem France now occupied by the Germans. Operations by the French aiid Americans Ameri-cans in the eouth may be counted on to work toward such a result. There is a hint in today's dispr.'chcs that some development of Importance is impending on the southern front, where the left flank of the Hlndenburs line is under Franco-American pressure. |