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Show BRITISr4 LSO SMASH THE GERMAN LINES . IN LOCAL ATTACKS Officers and Men Enthusiastic Over Franco-American Franco-American Victory and Go Forward to Add to Huns' Discomfiture. . By PHILIP GIBBS. (New York Times-Chicago Tribune Cab6 . Copyright.) pounded above them continuously, making the place hellish for them to get in or out, and they were not WAJ CORRESPONDENTS' HEADQUARTERS, HEAD-QUARTERS, July 19.- "There is a lot of good news flying about this morning," said a young officer I met on the road, who had just heard of the capture of enemy ground at Meteren and only vaguely then of the magnificent French success between the Marne and the Aisne. I was able to tell him the big number of prisoners prison-ers and guns and he said: 'It makes one feel good." .Everywhere the victory of the French was cheered and the success at Meteren, though it is a small thing compared with the immense triumph of Foch aJid his troops, which is a tidbit which adds to the sense of the turning of the tide in our favor. Meteren Is Only a Bit of Rains. Meteren was only a bit of a town and now has been shot to a heap of ruins, but is full of historical interest for us. It was to Meteren that the German cavalry retreated in October, 1914, when they were chased off Mont dea Cats, after the death of Prince Max of Hesse, in the old monastery up there," and out of Meteren they were driven back.uy our glorious old Third division to the line they held for vpa rs on Wvlschn pf a HcIp-p A 1 1 happy. The attack this morning was made towards Meteren and south of it by British troops, including the Scots, while further south the Australians went out hunting in their usual way and the English lads made the raid. Smoke Screens Baffle Enemy. Smoke screens spreading out widely in the wind baffled the enemy as to their object and the garrison of the enemy posts was quickly surrounded by Scotchmen and others. Sixty of them surrendered and the' remainder fought with their machine guns and were annihilated. In addition to these sixty men brought back, to our lines the Australians made a haul of seventy after crawling out into the tall grass working quite close to the enemy outposts, then jumping them under cover of a barrage. Both these minor operations were quick and successful, suc-cessful, but led to heavy artillery retaliation re-taliation here and there later in the morning. Teutons Fight as Men Doomed. One cannot help feeling kind of pitiful admiration for the German our soldiers who fought in Flanders knew Meteren well, passing through it i on the way to Belloul or billeting there in its barns and red brick cottages cot-tages and drinking thin beer in its old estarninet of "Le Voritable Goncou." Germans Did Not Expect Attack. From a military point of view, today's to-day's advance there is useful, as it gjves us some good observation of enemy ground. The Germans did not seem to expect the attack there, as their line was held by a small garrison garri-son living wretchedly In the cellars below the ruins which they had organized or-ganized as dugouts and machine gun emplacements. Our heavy guns make assaults and when once they are launched fight with staunch courage, cour-age, for they are disillusioned men, and no longer believe in an easy and complete victory and they go as men doomed by an iron discipline and by a fate which is not of their making to fulfill orders of their high command. com-mand. Information from reliable prisoners-goes to show that many of them are utterly disheartened by the events of recent months and are low- ! spirited because of their great losses in and behind the lines. They have no doubt about the superiority of our aircraft, because they see too often the effect of our night and daylight bombing and never feel safe. One man tells of our bombing of (Continued on Page Three.) j BRITISH SMASH GDUN LIS (Continued from Page One.) Osgnies, which has killed anriy horses and men. In Carvln, not long ago. forty German soldiers were killed or wounded, and one bomb made a direct hit on a company of Bavarians lined up on parade. Our long-range shelling also does' much destruction and wears 'the men's nerves to rags and tatters. Some of the prisoners say their faitli in the submarine campaign has been destroyed de-stroyed by the abundance of food they found in their advance after March 21 and by the enormous amounts of ammunition the British scorn to have. The present feeling is one of the fear that the war will not finish this year, but may go on for a long time, with a decreasing; chance of success. Dark Foreboding in German Army. Tn a lecture last January some of them were told there was nothing to fear from the Americans until July, but that after that date thev wouid have to be reckoned with seriously, though the difficulties of transportation transporta-tion would always hinder them. Even now they don't have any Idea of the numbers of America's fighting men already in France, but. judging from the prisoners, there is a sense of dark foreboding throughout the German Ger-man army and this will not be lifted by any news that comes to them of the crown prince's costly failure. But they will go on fighting. On our side let there be no illusion as to that. They will go on fighting doggedly and desperately, because they see no way out of that. |