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Show MORE VILLAGES ARE CAPTURED j St. Quentin Is Threatened by the Rapid Drive Forward of the Allies. PARIS, March T, 11 05 p. m. The French troops havn occupied about'-twenty about'-twenty additional villages and small ! towns in thpir advance on the rpfrpat inp Germans Thpy havp gonp bpyond Ham on the Somnjp river and Chauny on the Oise. which brines th4m appreciably appre-ciably nearer to the S( Quintln-Laon j line Thp official statement reads: "During the day our troops have tonp hpyond Ham, on the Somme. and Chaun on the Olse. We held a great number of localities betwpen these 'wo towns. "Our cavalry, diverging several kilometers kil-ometers north of Hani, raptured a con voy that was retreating toward St. I Quentin. Our advance reached on this point a depth of 35 kilometers (nearly lN twenty -two miles) "South of Chauny our detachments reached a general line of Aillette-Sois- J sons, which has been entirelv c Ipared northeast of Crony, our advance troops I progressed along the road to Mau-1 beugr. Today about twenty villages nrT small towns were liberated. "The enemy devastated the country before his retirement Fruit trees were cut down, fields were overturned by mines that had opened up great craters; numerous villages were completely com-pletely burned. The inhabitants without with-out shelter or sustenance were fed by j our troops. Roads were cu: at several sever-al poin's and bridges werp dpstroyed. "In Champagne the artillery fighting i became violent in the afternoon near Butte du Mesnil and west of Auber-1 euve. "On the left bank of thp Mouse we captured almost all the irpnch ele-j mpnts that thp enemy hald entered. The fighting continues." nn |