OCR Text |
Show Sole Object of Both Sides to Kill All Possible. Pos-sible. CHANGE IN SITUATION German Retreat in Center Cen-ter Is Now 14 - " Miles-.-"-" WASHINGTON, July 31. Tho sole object of the allies and tho Germans in the Soissons-Rhelms saliont now Is to kill as many men as possible, General Gen-eral March, chief of staff, said today at his semi-weekly conference with newspaper correspondents. Whatever objective either side had at the beginning, begin-ning, the general said, has been submerged sub-merged by developments in tho fighting. fight-ing. General March pointed out that the salient has been greatly flattered, thus virtually dissipating any hopes of the allies bagging large numbers of the enemy.' The German withdrawal since last Saturday, he added, had reduced the length of the line another ten miles to 54 miles. The maximum German Ger-man retreat in the center is l-l miles. Divisions in Fight. Arrival of the -12nd (rainbow) division divi-sion and its participation in the fighting fight-ing east of Fere-en-Tardenois was announced. an-nounced. The Third regular division was also identified as In action at Sergy and Cierges, where the crack German guard divisions have been defeated de-feated in recent fighting by American troops. General March announced the formation for-mation In the United Slates of six more divisions, numbered from 15 to 20 and to be located at Camps Logan, Texas; Kearny, Cal.; Beauregard, La.; Travis, Tex.; Dodge, la.; and Sevier, S. C. In the case of tho six divisions announced last week, these will be built around the regular infantry regiments regi-ments in each case. General March announced also tho conversion of 15 national army cavalry caval-ry regiments, numbered from 301 to 315, into field artillery. These will comprise part of the-artillery units for the new divisions. General March had nothing to reveal re-veal as tc the extent of the casualties sustiined by the American forces in the recent fighting. He said, however, that General Pershing had bfcen ordered or-dered to cable the casualties as received re-ceived and that these would br- given out hero at once. He added that there would be no distribution of casualties over a long period hereafter. U. S. On All Uniforms The chief of staff said that in carrying car-rying out the new policy of "one army" the var department intends to put the lettors "U. S." heretofore reserved for ihct regulars on the collar of every man serving in the military forces of the United States. Tho sub-designations of "N. G." for national guard and "N. A." for national nation-al army will be abandoned. In tho same connection General March said that tho thirteen major-generals and the thirty-six brigadiors necessary for tho new divisions will be selected from all elements of the service. This statement was taken to mean that both national guard and national nation-al army officers hereafter will be eligible eligi-ble for promotion to the rank, of gen-oral gen-oral officers even in regular army divisions. di-visions. In response to a question General March said that where a division commander com-mander was selected tobe a temporary tempor-ary corps commander tho command of his division passed to the senior brigadier. bri-gadier. He had no information as to tbe location at present of tho 89th national na-tional army division. |