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Show , tllJN WAR MAiHiNtj BREAKS L)OVN i Battle - worn German Troops Decline to Press Offensive ; British Brit-ish and French Taking Initiative in Fighting. TEUTON AIR RAID ON PARIS FAILS Some Enemy Divisions Lose as Much as Seventy Sev-enty Per Cent of Their Men; Companies Are Reduced to Forty. PARIS, April 2. One of the, German long-range guns bombarding bombard-ing Paris burst, according to prisoners pris-oners captured on tlio French front, five of the gun crew being killed. This announcement was made officially of-ficially tonight. With the passing of the thirteenth day of the new battle of the Soinmo there came increasing evidence that the groat German machine with which it was in- tended to crush the allied line has almost al-most utterly spent Itself. Where previously the Germans had thrown men into tho fray, not counting the prodigious wastage in killed or wounded, Tuesday saw them decline anywhere to give battle. On tho contrary, con-trary, In what 11 tt lo fighting occurred the British and French troops took tho initiative. Thus it seems apparent, with tho reserve re-serve forces of tho entento virtually Intact In-tact and with the added weight General Pershing's troops will give them, tho turn in the tide of tho battle is at hand. While admittedly both the French and British armies havo suffered rather severe se-vere casualties as they stood valiantly to their task of impeding the Germans mid making them pay an unheard -of prim for every foot of ground gained, their reserves have been conserved with the utmost caxo behind tho lines for the fateful fate-ful time when tho withering flro of the allied guns and machine gun a should have so blighted tho German hordes mh to bring more equality in strength to tho . fighting forces. And, all along, the British Brit-ish and French commanders have not h fl, outside their calculations that siauneh band of Americana exceeding JOO.OOO men, fully trained and equipped and n nxloiiH to lend their aid in defeating the Germans. Ger-mans. PRISONERS DETAIL GERMAN SLAUGHTER. Daily the German loHsen in men killed or wounded continue to aucment as details de-tails are obtained from the Germans maio prisoner. Home divisions lont as high ns 70 per cent of their effect ivea as they charged in mass formal ion a;a!nnt t ho Hritish and Freueh ma'hlno gunnerfl and riflemen. Companies withdrew from tho fighting with their combative strength re-dured re-dured to forty men. The latest account: fhow no Important new cha nge in the battle front. Duly ndnor operations took place on tliat portion por-tion of the line south of Alios held by tho I'.ritish, and 111 tie onido from artillery duels occurred bctwe" n tho French and the Germans further wouth. The fighting between t lie big guns was particula rly hr-avy b''twern MonHidier and Noyon, where tlie battle line bendH ratdward and whi'-h is a dangf-r ppot of gr-al Impor-I Impor-I ta n. o to the G'i uia n, tlie breaking t h rough of whb-h by the French would necessitate a rapid withdrawal of tlio Germans eastward from the mkna sector. sec-tor. GERMANS TRY TO RAID PARIS. Although tlie Germans hav lircn bombarding bom-barding i'.riMi-ii position: in Jlelglum, par- (Continued on Fao Fourteen.) ENTENTE DESERVE RUSHING 10 FIOIT , . C (Continued from Pago One.) ticu!ar!v at Passchendaele and alonj; the Goeber? rid.e, northeast of Ypres, there is no indication as yet that an infantry attack is contemplated. In addition to a continuance of their bombardment of Paris with a long-range sun, the Germans Ger-mans have again endeavored to d rop bombs on the French capital from airplanes. air-planes. Two squadrons of aircraft early Tuesday morning attempted to reach Pari?, but the French held them off. Bad weather is again hindering operations opera-tions in the Italian theater. In Palestine the British forces which penetrated Turkish territory northeast of Jericho have successfully carried out their objective in cutting the Hed.u:z railway and now have begun to retire toward Es-Salt. A large number of additional prisoners and guns, machine guns and other war stores have been taken by the British. Armenian and Georgian inhabitants of the three Caucasus districts turned over to Turkey in accordance with the recent peace treaty between Russia and the central cen-tral powers have formed an army to defend de-fend themselves against the Turks, who have besrun the military occupation of Batum, Kars and Ardaham. |