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Show HINDENBURG LINE BEIIJMASHED , British See in the New Drive a Further Retreat for Germans. LONDON, April 14, 1:05 a, m. The far-reaching important and sweeping success of the battle of Arras is be- ing revealed in successive chapters to the British public which hardly ' realizes yet that it is tho most effectual ef-fectual event to the credit of the British array during the war. It may well rank with the battle of the Marne, which turned back tho German Ger-man Invasion directed against Paris and may prove the turning point of the whole war in the west and change the balance of the world war. Field Marshal Haig's bulletin tonight, to-night, giving tho number of guns captured cap-tured as 16S and tho aggregato of prisoners as 13,000, and tho details of new territory gained for France from the Invader, marks the battle of Arras as a great victory. But the significant signifi-cant statement from Field Marshal Haig is that the British are astrfde the Hindenburg line. On a twelve-mile front northeast of Arras and on a nine-mile front northwest north-west of St. Quentin the forces of Field Marshal Haig have shattered tho German Ger-man defenses and forced the Germans to retire. Six Villages Captured. North and east of the Vimy ridge in the Arras region the British seized six villages from tho Germans during a successful move forward from tho Scarpo northward to near Loos. Lon. don says a footing also has been gained in the German trenches north-east north-east of Lens, a mining and railroad center. , Vimy, Petit Vimy, Givenchy-on-Gohelle and Angres, all north of the Vimy ridge and the villages of Wille-val Wille-val and Bailleul, east of the ridge, were taken in the advance. All these villages are on the slopes of the ridge. South of tho Arras-Cambrai road, it i is announced, the British forces have gained ground east of Wancourt and are astride the Hindenburg line as far as a point seven miles southeast of Arras. The famous Hindenburg line had been proclaimed by Its author as well as by German experts as a sort of great wall of China that would be as impregnable to assaults as that one of the Seven Wonders of the World which was so long an adamant barrier to protect an ancient Chinese dynasty. German experts have been even firmer in their faith in Field Marshal von Hlndenburg's Eighth Wonder of the World, than they were a few months ago that Vimy ridge was inconquerable. The German belief be-lief in the Von Hindenburg Buddha has even served to hypnotize part of tho British public and some of the prominent writers, who have been disposed to accept the German theory expounded in German papers that everything that has occurred on the western front has gone according to Von Hlndenburg's plans as foreseen by him. A number of European military writers have taken the view that the Hindenburg line was a myth painted to hearten the German people. But the British general staff for some time has known that there is a definite def-inite Hindenburg line upon which the German staff was basing its defense and has known exactly where that line was drawn. May Mean Further Retreat. If tho British can break through a vital or Important sector tho next chapter may be a further extenslvo German retreat, if, indeed, the Germans Ger-mans are able to retreat in order with Field Marshal Haig's army pressing them as closely as it is now doing. That the staff is clearly satisfied with events Is shown by reports at British headquarters in France. They say the German attempts to retrieve lost positions have been feeble and irresolute and that the situation has become full of uncertainty for the Germans. Ger-mans. Their calculations', It is added, have been upset by the speed and perseverance per-severance with which the initial British Brit-ish advance was followed up. , Northwest of St. Quentin the British Brit-ish advanced on a line between Hargi-court Hargi-court and Metz-en-Couture, capturing two woods, the Sart from the village of Gouzencourt. This advance enlarged en-larged tho salient in tho German lines between St. Quentin and Cambrai and outflanked the Havrlncourt wood on the south. French and Germans Engaged. French troops are hotly engaged with the Germans south of St Quentin, between the Sommo river and the St. Quentin railway. The latest official statement from Paris sayB tho battle continues in front of the positions of the French. The French carried several sev-eral lines of trenches between the rlv-er rlv-er and the railway. Artillery actions are reported between the Somme and tho Oise and in Champagne. German thrusts, Berlin says, counter balanced British attacks on Angres and Givenchy-en-Gohelle and near the Scarpe British attacks are reported to have been repulsed with losses. Berlin Ber-lin reports only minor engagements north of St. Quentin and says that French attacks failed on both banks of the Sommo, south of St. Quontin. |