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Show - THE RETREAT. Those who are eager for swift results re-sults in General Foch's counter-offensive will be disappointed, but in all the allied capitals there is a feeiing that the plans marked out by the generalissimo general-issimo in April are being realized earlier than was to be expected. An offensive which was to have been the blow from which the allies could not recover, has been transformed into the blow from which the enemy canaot recover. The stand which the Germans are making in the constricted area of the salient is necessary if the crown prince is to draw off his forces without suffering suf-fering utterly irretrievable losses. Already tho allies have narrowed the distance across the salient to twenty-five twenty-five miles. This would be sufficient, perhaps, for the supply of an army that intended to hold its lines or for the withdrawal of an army which intended to retreat in organized fashion, were it not for the peculiar lay of the land. The French and Americans cut across the Soissons:Chateau Thierry, highway and railroad, and where they did not reach the railroad they covered it with their artillery fire. Thus one important impor-tant line of communication was taken from the enemy. Only four principal highways are left to him and two railways. One of the railways is the line running from Soissons to Eheims, and, being an east-and-west road, is not of much use for a northerly retreat. Handicapped in this way, the enemy would still be in a position to retire in good order if his lines of communication were not under fire during eighteen hours of daylight both from artillery and from bombing planes. It may be that the Germans are wholly unable to conduct an organized retreat through the salient, and are under un-der the necessity of fighting where they are to the last. At any rate, they are being squeezed hard, and it is highly high-ly improbable that they will be able to retake the initiative in the present battle. bat-tle. Now and again they may recapture towns and villages, but it is unlikely that they will be able to make the front on which they are fighting a permanent line. |