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Show FOCH SEALS HIS . GRE4TTMIH Gouraud's Men Enter Vou-zieres, Vou-zieres, Another Stronghold Held by Germans Since 1914. PARIS, Oct. 14 Another victory has been added to the long trail of victory blazed by tho Allied armies. The Laon plateau at last has been won, crowning the Cambrni-St. Quentln,and Champagne offensives. The manoeuvers so skilfully elaborated elab-orated by Marshal Foch and so ably carried out by Field Marshal Haig and IPotain enabled this great achievement j to be accomplished without tho loss inseparable from a direct attack. Entire Defensive System Ruined The result Is the ruin of the cntiro defensive system built up by tho German Ger-man general staff since 1914, for the cornerstone of It was the Laon plateau, pla-teau, on which tho German line was pivoted. It was to turn It that he offensives of-fensives of 1915 and 1916 were carried out It was against it that the campaign cam-paign of 1917 was prematurely broadened. broad-ened. It was from the plateau that the sixth great drive of the Germans towards to-wards Paris was started. Its fall is the prelude to the liberation libera-tion of France, for progress made by the British in the vicinity of Douai puts the Germans in such a position that even if they can manage for a time tq cling between Bohain and Solesmes, while they evacuate the pocket of which St. Gobain is the bottom, bot-tom, they will be obliged to get back along tho frontier and it is more than likely that they will not oven have time for that. WITH THE FRENCH ARMY IN FRANCE, Oct 13. Marshal Foch sealed his triumph over General Lu-dendorff Lu-dendorff and Field Marshal von Hin-1 Hin-1 denburg yesterday when General Gouraud's Gou-raud's men entered Vouzieres in Champagne. Cham-pagne. Vouzieres is a town of 3000. It commands two defiles in the forest region re-gion eastward and Is of no great military mili-tary Importance in itself. The slgnlfl-, cance of the capture arises from the ! fact that silnce 1914 St has symbolized symbol-ized German resistance in northern France. Von Kluck in acknowledging the failure of tho plan to take Paris said: "But the French -will never rc-tako vouzieres, meaning not merely mo inconsequental town of that name but tho entire system of German defense de-fense along the Alsne. But Vouzieres has been taken. The lino of the Aisno has crumbled and the Hindenburg lino has been demolished at several places In this region. Germans Retire With Great Skill. The Germans appear thus far to have kept their retreat In hand with the greatest skill. At Vouzieres yos-terday yos-terday evening when the French entered en-tered the town, blankets, pillow cases and household linens of all kinds were lying in the streets, having been collected col-lected by the German booty detachments detach-ments whose work was interrupted by the rapid advance of Gouraud's troops. Tho French troops not only saved part of the booty of Vouzieres that was ready for shipment to Germany, but they interrupted the work of destruction destruc-tion throughout the region in the bend of the Alsne, liberating a number of the villages, some of them virtually intact in-tact and freeing about 5000 civilians from German domination. Some houses were still burning In Vouzieres last evening and German shells were falling in the town. Observation in parts of the village that could be visited visit-ed indicates that the damage is only partial. The enemy ocupied strong positions posi-tions on the right bank of the Aisne to the east, where he .opposed vigorously vigor-ously the efforts of the French to effect ef-fect a crossing. A passage, however, was forced this morning and a footing gained on the eastern bank. |