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I i I T T N l S IN f AISNE A 11 VI CT Rt i Huge Hindenburg Army Totters Back Like Pugilist Pugilist 1 list Dealt Staggering Blow to Point of Jaw r While Petain Continues Winning Onslaught I With the Laon Fortress as His Objective I II I i II I LONDON LONION Oct 26 Shortly Shortly before 7 1 o'clock t this s morning I British forces which began an an offensive o on the Ypres front werd were l r pen en e German Gennan upon pillboxes pillboxes upon Bellevue B spur spur and and shortly I afterward signals showed that the British had carried i chat chateau au which had been strongly fortified by the Germans telegraphs telegraphs telegraphs tele tele- graphs the correspondent of Reuters Reuter's Limited at British head headquarters I in Belgium I By Henr Henry y Wood United Press Staff Correspondent i WITH TILE THE ARMIES U S IN THE TIIE FIELD With 26 I every hour Mott lOm today there grew evidence that General J retain stroke on the tIlt Ai Anne Aisne lle had inflicted on German Germany her greatest i of 1917 Demoralized by hy the blows blous of the great French war lU machine the G Germans today were aban abandoning their guns gUllS n in lu an an effort to retreat t a ro s the marshy valley and the Ai Aisne me and Disc Oiso canal Fighting with the desperation of men who know they are be beaten the enemy gave way for the French wedge until toda today it had been been jammed d snore mort more than three miles miles' into the pivotal base o of the thC German line curbing the western ln extremity of th thI the I Chemin iles cs Danies Panics i Total captures capture of suet men reached more than More More- than thau guns gums have llave been taken so far Several hundred trench mortars mal and machine guns are arc not included in ill this s count Judging from flout prisoners prisoners' stories and an estimate of the mangled heaps of German dead the German losses in Tuesdays Tuesday's s drive and Thursdays Thursday's acceleration may he be conservatively estimated at equivalent equivalent equivalent lent to three whole hole German divisions approximately divisions approximately men j I Jn Iu proportion to the size of the seven battlefront battlefront seven mil miles this miles this s this 1 is the hen heaviest iest loss Joos which Germany German has ever over sustained in ill a single I series of military operations since the disastrous German retreat i last spring 1 Not ot only that but the French victory is a cumulative one j now dominate the entire valley Their hold on the i observatories here practically rend renders rs untenable the German lines linc's I along the northern edge of pf the bloody Chemin de des Dames all alt t the e eway I way toward Craonne far to the l east a t. t f Like Boxer Dealt Staggering Blow Today Joday the battle batHe thundered on ou the enemy Hemy apparently seeking I t to snake make a stand on new lines opposite to the heights J of th the I I How great was the jar to German army morale when i j I burgs burg's R troops troop felt the impact of Petain's Petain pivotal blow was evidenced j in a score 0 of proofs today Like a box boxer borer r struck a a. staggering staggering- blow on the jaw the German army machine reeled backward jt its it's mind j COI confused every sense of apprehension attuned to the keenest point and amt then with muddled befogged ed comprehension strove blindly lo 10 cover covel up TIp That grogginess was l evident in iu hast hasty abandonment of or guns It was wag even pla plainer in confused l orders taken from front captured office officers One officer captured near Pinon Piton l carried orders to abandon his four mortars mortals Ui His major taken major taken at t the same stone point point had had contradictory orders first orders first t. t to retreat secondly to resist regardless regard less Jeas o of cost tJ Six Bix hundred prisoners taken at Pinon evidence this demoralization of the orderly Gt German Getman lu n military brain through I Pe ill 8 staggering blow The rhe Germans had not even thou thought hl of a defeat at the corner I of t their heiJ r line where the French struck Their linen Hues were impregnable impregnable g. g When those H impregnable positions melted before the French fire firc the demoralization must have been sudden dramatic and of bitter relish to the German high command The rime new advanced French Drench line liue today was in an average of or three and tenth one miles beyond brond Mondays Monday's Q positions over t r A H total front front fronto o of practically ia Ity seven miles mils of 1 these lines today swept more and more German GArman positions into t the lie hands hand Praline France Continued on In page pace 2 O LOSS IN BA BATTLE BATHE TILE OF Continued d from page 1 Jl has S ahead already reoccupied the territory between tl the Monkey mountain ill illand and Pargny capturing o the villages of Pinon Pargny and Filain 5 By United Press LONDON LONbON O Oct t. t 26 Germanys Germany's offensive ve against Italy tali looks rooks serious at tho the start start but but the lie se season son is IS bad for such fetich a Ital Italy is well vell mH and 1 amply y provided with ith troops and observers are united in complete confidence of her liei ability to weather whatever the tho Germans ma may raise Austria Impotence Is I l S S Held Clearly Shown S This Fills view was expressed in in- various quarters he hero here e toa today Wha t Jint t interested British h observers the thc niost most in iu the whole ahon w wasi i s the tho fact that the Isonzo offensive WitS was v regarded as f further rth i e evidence of f Austria's military impotence It is Germany which is waging the Italian drive German troops troops German offic r rG G German munitions and German war plans arc in control Well VeIl informed here held the German control of this effort likewise established Germanys Germany's intention to keep Austria under i complete vassalage to Berlin S By International News International News Service P Oct 26 The fhe The German armies armies lies in ill France and and Belgium beat r and ind demoralized are re approaching their Vat Waterloo That was the beli belief f expressed today by military experts who sec the war in ill an all entirely new phase us as a result of the brilliant I vl victories df the British l and and Krench in ill V West est P Flanders anders and on the heights north of the Aisne river rIver I Laon Laou the great German for fortress ress at the southern end of the thc line is almost within the grasp of of the French and ad orders found upon the thu bodies df of de dead d German officers in that district show that the thc utmost confusion exists among the tile high command of of of the German crown princes prince's armies Same Some regiments were ordered to do O one thi thing lg and aud orders were found Upon the commanders of adjoining regiments The victorious sweep of General Petain's continues unchecked and lind now about German prisoners remain 11 in the hands of the French One hundred and anti twenty-five twenty big guns and numerous field fieldI fieldpieces fieldpieces pieces were captured by the tile French and a number of additional I fortified villages were overrun I |
