OCR Text |
Show . ! Over 2,000,000 Ameri-j can Soldiers Have i Gone Overseas. ' i GJR EAT RETREAT: i i American Army in iar Fighting Northwest , of Verdun. WASHINGTON. Oct. 19. More than 2,000,000 American soldiers now have gono overseas, General March told the members of the senate military committee com-mittee today at their war department conference. While the conference was in progress pro-gress General March was notified that the Germans had evacuated the entire Belgian coast up to the Holland boundary boun-dary and that it Is now in possession of the allies. British patrols participating in the allied advance in Belgium are reported report-ed to have reached the Holland frontier fron-tier opposite Bruges, General March was informed in today's early dispatches. dis-patches. The German retirement from tho Belgian coast, General March added, Is Increasing in breadth and speed. Tho movement to the rear, on the whole, he added, is extromely rapid, as illustrated il-lustrated by the fact that the territory terri-tory evacuated in four days totals more than 800 square miles. Renewed attacks in France near Douai by allied forces have carried their line up to the hastily construct - follows in a general way the Sensee canal and marshes. No attempt to ! cross this barrier has been reported, j The Hindenburg defense system is now entirely behind the allied advance and Marshal Foch Is continuing his pressure without giving the enemy tho slightest opportunity for a rest. General March called attention to the fact that the retirement starting last week on a sixty mile sector be--j tween the Oise and the Argonne had spread during the week uutil it affected af-fected all except fifteen miles of the 2-10 mile front from tho coast to the Meuse. While this retirement was in pro: gress, he said, the American armyj northwest of Verdun was lighting its way forward against stiff resistance. The 29th division (New Jersey, Delaware, Del-aware, Virginia, Maryland and District of Columbia troops) was identified as one of those operating east of the! Meuse. The 85th (Michigan and east1 Wisconsin) is now acting as a depot division on the line of communication while the 84th (Kentucky, Indiana and southern Illinois) is reported as having I just arrived in France. The o8th division divis-ion ((Indiana, Kentucky and West Virginia) has not yet arrived overseas. oo |