OCR Text |
Show NOW OVER 1 1,000 Defeat of Germans on the West Front Is Growing in Magnitude. LONDON. April 10. Inferno Is loose on tho west front. A thousandfold more hellish than that which Dante visualized yet It is but the prelude to the twentieth century battle, the last bloody word in the world war, in which Britons and Teutons aro grapplng for victory and peace. Upon a fifty-mile front from Lens down to tho gates of St. Quentin they are locked in the supreme struggle for mastery As dusk settled upon , tho battlefield tho British, after thirty-six hours of steady smashing ahead, were still tho masters of the initiative, were still victoriously rushing on in ceaseless Btormlng waves, lipping wider wid-er and wider gashes In the Teuton wall of steel and iron. In the fore are still tho Canadians, heroes of Vlmy ridge, tho capture of which made possible the "big push" now under way "They did not break through," tho German war office announced uiis afternoon, af-ternoon, though admitting heavy losses loss-es to two divisions -40,000 men. But Sir Douglas Haig is determined to break through. The crisis is at hand. Burst the Northern Pivot. The northern pivot of the "Hindon-burg "Hindon-burg line" has been broken. Thus Hlndenburg's right wing in the region of Vimy ridge is "up in the air," to employ an expression used to describe a line which has been pierced and whose flank rests on no point of support. sup-port. Berlin declares that the English Eng-lish did not break through, but that depends on tho point of view. Lines which had been prepared for moro than two years with every device possible pos-sible In Sold fortifications have been penetrated to a depth of not less than two miles, and in some places to a depth of six miles. Moro than 100 guns, somo of them of eight-inch caliber, cali-ber, and scores of machine guns and trench mortars, havo been captured. Tho battle is still in progress and the English and Canadians continue to gain. Capture 11,000 Prisoners. Notwithstanding tho -strong resistance resist-ance and the added handicap of a heavy snowstorm, King George's forces, forc-es, notable among them the Canadians, have again hit the German line hard at several points for good gains along, the front from Vimy southward and , also west of Cambral. Five miles east of Arras the British havo renched the suburbs of Honchy-1 le-Prex and northeast of Arras hae cleared out the Germans from Farbus j and the Farbus wood, while immedt-1 ately north of this sector the Canadians Canadi-ans in hard flghtlng'took additional Important positions on the reverse sldo of Vlmy ridgo and captured prisoners pris-oners and mnchine guns. Ten miles west of Cambral the British have established es-tablished their lino north of Louvcral. In tho two days' fighting along the front from Lens to tho southeast of Arras tho Germans have suffered great Josses in men and guns Mor than 11,000 prisoners, among them 235 officers, of-ficers, havo been taken, with 100 guns, sixty trench mortars, and 1G3 machine guns. Some of the larger guns aro of eight-inch caliber. The advance of the British over the cntlro front has been made to a depth of from two to six miles, the penetration being greatest east and southeast of Arras. Berlin admits that two German divisions divi-sions in the fighting near Arras Sunday Sun-day suffered "considerable losses," in stubbornly resisting superior forces, it admits also that thcBrllibh penetrated pene-trated German positions, but says they did not break through tho line. New Succc8o in Turkey, On that part of the line held by the French reciprocal bombardments continue. con-tinue. No Infantry engagement has taken place. Again the British and Russian forces report successes over tho Turks In Mesopotamia and along the Caucasus front The Russians operating against the Turks in Mesopotamia from tho Khanikan district near the Perso-Meso-potamian .frontier have captured the village of Kizil Robat, eighty miles northeast of Bagdad, and north of this region have driven back the Turks in the district of Baneh, which lies 100 miles east of Mosul. Fifty miles northwest of Bagdad the British troops have captured the villages vil-lages of Balad and Herbe and cap tured nine Turkish officers and 200 men Two machmo guns and railwaj , materials were taken by the British, i |