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Show GEII1B If FN MM i Spearhead cf Menacing Wedge That Threatened Paris and Amiens Bat-i Bat-i tered In on Both Ends. BOTH FRENCH AND I BRITISH ADVANCE Allies Cancel von Hinden-burg's Hinden-burg's Engagement With Himself to Dine in the French Capital April 1. By International News Service. LONDON", March 31. The German drive is slopped. The spearhead of the menacing wedge that threatened Amiens and Paris and seriously endangered the junction point of the French and Brit-j Brit-j ish lines has been haltered in on both sides and for thirty-six hours the Germans Ger-mans have been on the defensive, trying try-ing to stem the ever-welling tide of the allied reserve army. Mezieres and Moreuil have been recaptured, recap-tured, the former ty the British, the lat-, lat-, ter by mixed French and British forces at the point of the bayonet, after it had changed hands twice. Recapture of Mezieres represents a gain of at least two miles for the British, Brit-ish, but from Moreuil the allied advance to Mezieres is more than three miles. At other vital parts of the line, both on the northern and southern leg of the G o r m a n wedge, important g airs w ere made by the British and French, respectively, re-spectively, and in the center jointly. The great "come tack" set in late yesterday evening and its momentum increased throughout the night. 700 Prisoners Taken. Seven hundred prisoners were takn by the French in another important success, the reva.pt tire of Piedmont. Between Moreuil and Lassigny the French advanced ad-vanced as far as Chauny-Sur-Matz. On this front it is announced that the on-storming German waves were literally "mowed down." Terrific losses on all rarts of the counter-attack are reported. The British are once more in full possession pos-session of their positions in tiie Luce vi Hey. south o: the Somme. thus materi-r- 'y reducing, if not entirely stopping, the German menace to Amiens from due east. To the north of the Somme the British advanced their lines as far as Serre and took 2-i prisoners. Tonight, as the result of the unrelent- ins French hammering against the German Ger-man left . flank between recaptured Moreuil Mo-reuil an!5 "Lassiny. a front of twenty-rive ' miles. Montdidier, the important town ! fifty-five miles north ea st of Paris, which i iie Germans tried va inly to make the pivot for their plowshare movement, is within the grasp of Forh's reserves and its recapture may be announced any moment. Bit Into Granite. The loss of Moreuil is the biuerpst pill Jlindenburg has yet had to swallow since t he allies first demonstra te J to him that their front was not held by a "contemptible "con-temptible littie army," t'nat" might be broken by sheer weight of flesh and steel. For it was to Moreuil that he wung the momentum of 3: is drive toward the end of the past week, after his shork troops had bitten granite on tiie French side. The brilliant dash and the enthusias ic comradeship with whb'h Frenrh and British Brit-ish hurled themselves, breast by br-ast, into the Teuton lines hoMirg t ho shMl-ba shMl-ba t tered town, is acclaimed in London and Paris tonight as tiie first great ';m-onstratir.n ';m-onstratir.n of wisdom of the centralization centraliza-tion of the allied western command. Harvest of Death. To the north of the Somme the Germans Ger-mans repeated their reckss a-.s.i nits, reaping only a harvest of d'-ad in their own ranks. Their siic-k columns surged into battle in foir waves. Pnllre bat talions were wiped out. Front dispatches the U-uton losses on this comparably compara-bly limited sector alone run into the thousands. Km tie signs are flaring up on the Verdun Ver-dun trout. Three strong German raids wore beaten off by the French. For some time the belief has been almost general in military circles i hat the Germans, with the regrouped and reinforced army formerly for-merly under the command of the crown prince, and now led In- Germanv p most famous artillery general. Von Gallwitz, would try to take the big French fortress after all. Infinitely stofped in Picardy, the Germans Ger-mans are fully expected to attempt a blow elsewhere, but the allies are readv to meet it, as thev have met the crisis of the last ten days. The reports from both the British and French war offices seemingly indicate that the allied troops have reached the limits of their retrograde movement. In any event, thev have canceled the engagement en-gagement Field Marshal von Hindenburg made with himself to take dinner in Paris on Ail Fools' day. |
