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Show GERMANS CANNOT STOP FRENCH I GERMAN HORDES UNABLE TO CHECK ADVANCE OF I GEN. NIVELLE'S ARMIES J Quarter Million Fresh' Troops Thrown Into Fray 1 Between Soissons and Auberive Great at I Wedge Driven by French Into Von Hindenbnrg's Reinforced Lines. Germany has thrown nearly a quarter of a million fresh troops into the fray on the 60-mile sector of the western front between Soissons and Auberive and still is unable to check! . the French advance. H Both north of the Aisne and in the Champagne Gen. 3 Nivelle's 'forces are pressing forward. The last stronghold of B the Germans on the Aisne was taken with the capture of the Ijl Vailly bridgehead yesterday and their wavering lines con- aJI tinued last night to be pushed rapidly northward. 31 From Chavonne on the Aisne the French have driven Hf more than three miles north of the river despite desperate re- sJf sistance by Von Hindenburg's reinforced armies. H In the Champagne the French have driven a great wedge n more than three miles deep into the German lines between 9 Rheims and Auberive and last night's attacks netted Gen. Nivelle's men several important heights in the Moronvilliers IB region. WK Meanwhile the British are quiescent, so far as the official H accounts show, awaiting their turn to strike the other flank H of the Von Hindenburg line. H The French have so far taken more than 1 7,000 prisoners B in their offensive. At last accounts the British had taken in m excess of 14,000. If The French also have captured nearly 1 00 guns. KA - W& PARIS, April 19, 1 p. m. The sec- Wl tlon of Von Hindenburg's granite wall Hlf -which runs from Soissons to Rheims W has been shaken to its founuations by M the terrific blows of General Nivelle. HI The French have the whip hand now H and the Germans are still staggering H from the great rebuff dealt to them H on Monday. The French soldiers wno H won the first line have been relieved H by fresn formations and the second K phase of the battle has begun with H renewed vigor. mm Un affected by counter attacks in Hf some places and the sturdy resistance B offered everywhere, the French have H gained substantial advantages and H have drivon forward with such speed H that the Germans have been obliged H to abandon many guns. The enemy B made a desperate effort to stem the B tide between Jucincourt and Berry-au-B Bac. This is the weakest point of his B line, being devoid of natural defenses. Thirty thousand of the best German B troops were hurled forward here in a B furious counter attack, but the move H had been foreseen and the French I guns were ready. Artillery and mall ma-ll chine guns smashed wave after wave IffW of the green-clad soldiers until finally r the attempt was given up after awful carnage. French Outclass Germano. Further details of yesterday's battlo from SoisBons to Auberive show that the French infantry tactically outclassed out-classed the Germans. The first army, operating from Soissons to Craonne. had established itself on Monday night along the front running from northwest north-west of Margival and Vauxaillont to the south of Craonne by Vregny, Chiv-res, Chiv-res, Chavonne, Chivy and Ailles. Nortn '. of the Chivres-Chlvy line the enemy f retained all the heights and a footing had to bo won thereon beforo the op-oration, op-oration, so auspiciously begun, could be properly completed. Two simultaneous attacks were decided de-cided upon, with Nanteuil-la-Fosse on the left and Chivy and Braye-en-Laon-nois on the right as the respective objectives. ob-jectives. The attacks succeeded perfectly, per-fectly, notwithstanding the determined resistance of the enemy, who had all the advantages of the ground. Driven out of Nantcuil and Braye. the Ger mans nevertheless still clung to the intermediate positions, comprising 'Vailly and the important bridgehead on the Aisne, by which they could threaten the French flanks. llv. The movement was then extonded to Ss the bridgehead, which was soon carried, car-ried, and the attacking troops scaled the slope of tho plateau north of Vailly. Vail-ly. They advanced rapidly as far as ' Rouge Maison farm and a country house to the right, gaining several hundred yards of ground on tho summit sum-mit of the plateau. Substantial progress prog-ress was also made east of Nantouil and by the afternoon only one narrow gap was left through which tho Germans Ger-mans could withdraw the troops in the region of Condo, Cellos and Sancy. These detachments are in serious danger dan-ger of capture. Enemy In Disorder. The violence of the French attack threw the enemy Into such disorder that he was unable to bring up reserves re-serves quickly enough and consequently consequent-ly lost several guns. Toward tho end of the day tho French made further progress between the plateau of Vailly and Brayo, all villages south of tho famous Chemin Dos Dames being ta- EJp ken. ff The advance toward Courtecon dur- l (Continued on Page 0) PMNIil, f--rlt it, ,L I jiL.l rW f li.tHIMIUfcM I, ....I1 l'L'12. fiFRMANS CANNOT ' (Continued From Page 1) ing the last three days has been even greater and amounts to more than three miles in depth. In the center the battle raged most fiercely in the region of La Villo Aux Bois. The wood east of tho village, 2000 yards long by 500 yards in depth, was very strongly held by the enemy, no less than 180 machine guns being crowded into it. All these were captured, together to-gether with 1800 men, by a clever maneuver ma-neuver which, cut off the wood from the rest of the lino. Heavy Guns Captured. The army on tho right, from Pru-nay Pru-nay to Auborivo, by skillful maneuvering, maneuver-ing, cleaned the Germans out of most of the heights In front of the village of Moronvllllers. On one of the crests several heavy guns were captured On the whole, when the wretched weather and the difficulties of the terrain ter-rain are considered, the day's work is considered most satisfactory and it is believed that it paves the way for far more rapid progress in the near fu lure |