OCR Text |
Show TANKS DLAZEWAY FOR INFANTRY French Relieve Pressure on Amiens and Capture Excellent Excel-lent Observation Ground. WITH THE BRITISH ARMY IN FRANCE, July 26 (By the Associated Associat-ed Press.) Tanks blazed the trail for and co-operated with the French In- ') I fantry in its recent ground-gaining as-sault as-sault north of Montdldief. By hurling the enemy west of the Avro river from the high ground between Morisel and Montdidier Into the valley on a j front of more than two miles, with- t drawal from other positions was com pelled. The French somewhat relieved ! ' the pressure on Amiens and captured captur-ed ground which gives excellent observation. ob-servation. While the French infantry had no great amount of experience with tanks, the co-operation was perfect. per-fect. Out of the early morning storm the great lumbering monsters suddenly appeared before the German outposts. , They promptly proceeded to crush the ' machine gun nests and then to cha3e ; and run to earth stray enemy groups. The Germans bad a perfect horror of the tanks, according to prisoners. They rolled flat enemy machine gun posts and anti-tank guns which were rather i freely scattered, sent bullets into the enemy front lines. During the engagement two of these forts on wheels were slowed up by artillery Are from hostile batteries above the Avre river but the crews emerged, set up machine guns in the open and reaped a little harvest of Boches in conjunction with the French infantry. The engagement concluded, the victorious vic-torious French swarmed about the tanks and thero were mutual congratulations congrat-ulations all around. The tanks came back decorated with French flags which had been placed on them by a French general on behalf of himself and men. Weather Hinders Operations. WITH THE AMERICAN ARMY ON THE .AISNE-MARNE FRONT, July 26. (By the Associated Press.) For the second time sinco the big battle began the weather today interfered with operations, especially in the air. The afternoon was cloudy with local showers frequently drenching the fields and forcing the airplanes to descend. de-scend. Before the work of aerial observation ob-servation and bombing was ended, however, one American aviator, Lieutenant Lieu-tenant Avery, succeeded in forcing down alive within the American lines a German captain who had a record of sixteen victories over allied aviators. Another American near Villeneuvo also brought down a German plane. |