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Show Rheims in order to throw most of bis strength to the westward toward Paris. All along the western side of the salient north to Koissons, and tiien to the northwest north-west across the Aisne and as far as Xoyon'on the old Picardy front, he tried to break down the wail guarding Paris, which was approximately fifty-two fifty-two to h'fty-hve miles away. lie struck violently against this wall at all stra- i tegical points and forced it back slowly after the heaviest fighting. West of Soissons his gains were comparatively com-paratively slight, for the French are still within eight miles of the western outskirts of that town. To the northeast north-east the French were compelled to retreat re-treat across the old battleground southwest south-west of Laon, but they made the foe pay dearly for his progress. It was between be-tween Soissons and the Mame that the Germans made their biggest gains toward to-ward the end of their offensive, and it was especially to the northwest of Chateau Thierry that they flung their lines farthest toward Paris. By Saturday Satur-day , Americans began to appear at Chateau Thierry and to the east and northwest of that city on the Marne. They took part in the defense of. Chateau Thierry, which developed into a strenuous engagement. The enemy tried to cross the bridge in the center of the town and there was desperate fighting in the street. American machine gunners took heavy toll of the enemy. At last it became necessary "to retreat across the bridge and blow it up. In this the Americans aided the French. The Germans, advancing on tho bridge, were blown up, and many of them were captured. Later tho Germans Ger-mans tried to cross at Jaulgonne, east of Chateau Thierry. Here again they came in contact with Freich infantry and American machine gun units. Ladder Lad-der bridges were thrown across, the stream at various points, but most of them were destroyed by artillery fire. Several hundred of the Germans succeeded suc-ceeded in crossing to the south bank, but in a counter-attack they were all killed, wounded or captured. It was to the northwest of Chateau Thierry, at the very apex of the enemy wedge, that the Americans did most of their fighting. A division of marines joined tho French there early in the week near Veuilly-la-Poterie, eight miles west of Chateau Thierry and also northward toward the southern environs of Villers-Cotterets. It was perhaps in this last-named region that the Americans first saw severe fighting and won their first victory. The Germans attempted to push through a wood, but were met by the French and Americans. They were thrown back to the northern part of the wood and then ejected altogether. alto-gether. By Tuesday the marines were on the offensive along the heights northwest of Chateau Thierry, in conjunction with the French, who appear to have been operating oper-ating principally upon their left. The Germans were now due for a surprise. Instead of continuing on the road to Paris they found themselves confronted by ah enemy displaying the most superb valor as well as the greatest skill ajid determination. The enemy put in a division of Saxon troops against the French-American combination!, but withdrew with-drew it eaj'ly in the week. Another division faced the Americans on Monday, Mon-day, and on Tuesday a division of Prussians Prus-sians took up thekaiser 's battle against our men. All of these divisions were worsted, and the Americans and French continued to advance all Tuesday and Wednesday. They gave the enemy no rest, making repeated attacks against nests of machine guns. Four or five hundred prisoners were captured by Thursday, the Americans losing few if any prisoners themselves. Although the gains were trivial compared with the . PROGRESS OF THE WAR. Only by means of an ofteiuive can the allies prevent the 'jermans front gaining new advantages. Another enemy offensive is to be expected either in tin; direction of Paris or toward Verdun. Ver-dun. If the allies arc still too weak to take the offensive they must look for a drive which will wrest from them territory more valuable strategically than any yet taken by the Hermans. I na-umch as the French must bear the brunt of the defensive lighting for a time, an offensive by the British would lie the logical move. if tho British could mass sufficient strength to drive the Hermans hack in Flanders while the French were battling strenuously antl inflicting heavy losses on tho enemy, midsummer would see the invaders practically prac-tically at a standstill. But unless the allies tire able to strike an offensive blow somewhere they must prepare to surrender more territory to the foe. French and American fliers report the massing of enemy troops in the region between A'erdun and our army in Lorraine. Lor-raine. These reports are calculated to mako the allies nervous, for their aviators avi-ators have not been able to prevent the Germans from launching three surprise attacks on a grand scale this year. Invariably, In-variably, the blow has fallen at an unexpected un-expected point. The offensive which has just culminated cul-minated in tho Champagne sectors was looked for early in the year, but the Germans shifted the blow to Picardy, then struck in Flanders, and finally delivered de-livered a lightning stroke in the Champagne Cham-pagne country. And when they delivered deliv-ered it the French were unprepared. While the evidence points to a drive between Rheims and Verdun or southeast south-east of Verdun against the French and Americans, another surprise may be in store for the allies. An allied offensive will give them advantages hitherto possessed by the, enemy. The initiative means much. It puts the enemy on the defensive where he supposedly is weak, and forces him to concentrate reserves for defense. Naturally, any plans which he may have had to begin an offensive of his owti are seriously interfered with. We have seen this illustrated since late in March. Although the allies possessed about as many men as the enemy they were unable to use them to the best advantage, for they were forced to Shift them back and forth to cope with the enemy's drives. If 750,000 or more American troops are in France, as we have been led to believe, the allies should have sufficient numbers to assume the offensive. Why an offensive has not been tried before this is an obscure problem. Our own conjecture has been that the allies, although al-though they had enough men, did not have enough battle-trained storm troops to oppose the German veterans. If this has been the viewpoint of the allies we are tempted to think that it has been fallacious. The success of the American marines in meeting and defeating de-feating the best Prussian soldiers suggests sug-gests that perhaps there are some soldierly sol-dierly qualities which may counter -balance the benefits of intensive training. Whereas the Germany army is composed com-posed largely of boys and middle-aged men, the American army has taken in comparatively few men under twenty-one twenty-one or 1 more than thirty-one. Our army, while it lacks in training, vhas some qualities which are, one may say, at a very low ebb in all the other armies. Our men have an energy, health and freshness which fits them ideally for offensive fighting. Logically, this argument would lead to the conclusion that an American offensive of-fensive should be attempted. And why not? There are many objections, and perhaps they should be controlling, but the amateur strategist is apt to wonder why so much good soldierly material should be neglected in this season's fighting. It may be that our men are on too many fronts at once, and that they can attempt nothing in the way of a drive until they are concentrated into a single army. On the other hand we see them making a miniature drive northwest of Chateau Thierry in conjunction con-junction with the French. Why would it not be possible and a high service ; to the allied cause for them, co-operating with the French, to launch an offensive offen-sive on a big scale? It may be taken for granted that unless some of the entente armies strike a great blow the enemy will soon be able to occupy several sev-eral thousand more square miles of France. The German offensive followed closely the tactical development of tho Picttrdy drive. For about five days the Germans Ger-mans advanced at the rate of six miles a day toward the Marue. tStarting on j Monday, May "7, they reached the i Marne by Friday and began to spread j out to the east and west. Their at-I at-I tack had started in the form of a j wedge When the offensive climaxed ! at the Marue it had three sides a side running north and south, a side running eilst and west along the Marue, and a itiilo running from the Marne northeast S toward Illieims. The Germans continued to make slow advances for three more days, and about Tuesday of last week they had almost cnt;rely lost their momentum. After reaching the Marne their principal movements were west and northwest of Chateau Thierry toward Paris, west of Soissons toward Paris and northwest of oissen?. On the Klieims side of the salient a slight advance was made against the Anglo-British forces and the supply depot at Ville-en-Tardenois was captured. It was obvious that the enemy was neglecting the development toward gains which the Germans had made in two weeks they served to stop the foe in full career toward Paris and beat him bat(k. The French and Americans recaptured re-captured Gandelu, Chezy, Veuilly-la-Poterie and a parj of Torcy. One or two German submarines appeared ap-peared off our east coast about ten days ago and began sinking vessels engaged en-gaged in the coastwise or West Indies trade. Within a week fourteen vessels were sent to the bottom and the enemy visitors succeeded in eluding our. destroyer de-stroyer squadrons. The nearest that.pne of the enemy submarines and perhaps there was only one succeeded in getting get-ting to New York harbor was a point fifty miles off Baruegat, New Jersey. Although the U-cruiser was close' to the route used by our convoys for France it did not venture to attack transports, but confined its attention to much smaller vessels. The principal ship sunk was the passenger steamship Carolina, bound for Porto Bico. A few oil tankers and a few sailing vessels were also destroyed. One of the first vessels reported sunk was the Herbert L. Pratt. It later was thought that this ship struck' a mine. At all events our mine sweepers picked up a dozen or more mines which had been scattered by the U-boat. |