OCR Text |
Show TIDE OF INVASION IS EBBING FROM DOUAI TO VERDUN Enemy Abandons Le Cateau and St. Gobain Stronghold, Champagne and Cambrai-St. Quentin Sectors Offer Less and Less Resistance French and Americans 'Converging on Grandpre. (By The Associated Press) From Douai to Verdun the tide of German invasion is ebbing. A general gener-al retreat of the Teutonic forces over this line appears to have begun some time yesterday. East of Cambrai the enemy has abandoned Le Cateau, which has been occupied by the British and Americans. Ameri-cans. Further south the French have pushed further eastward in their advance ad-vance from St. Quentin. Just north of La Fere where, the enemy has held his positions d:ncc early in September, the French have-taken have-taken the village of Servais which marks the point where the wedga is entering the St. Gobain stronghold, in which the Germans have almost impregnable im-pregnable positions. Pushing eastward along the Chemin des Dames the French have forced the enemy across the Oise-Aisne canal and just to the southeast they crossed the Aisne a little to the eastward of Oeuilly. In the Champagne sector the forces of General Gouraud have swept ahad and occupied Termes and Grandpre which stand on the north bank of the Aire river as it winds through the Argonne forest. East of the Argonne forest, American Ameri-can divisions have smashed their way ahead, taking Sommerance. Chevieres and Marcq. This brings them nearly up to Grandpre. Further east they have rectified their line on each side of the Meuse. The significant feature of this fighting fight-ing Is that in the Champagne, Argonne Ar-gonne and Cambrai-St. Quentin sectors sec-tors there has been but little resistance resis-tance to the advance of the Allied armies. East of Cambrai the Germans Ger-mans seem to be in full flight. This too, Is the case further south where the French are marching virtually unimpeded un-impeded in the direction of Guise. The advance of tho French uearXa Fero and along the Aisne to the south of 7-iaon seem to bo quite significant This part of the battlo line has tho strongest natural positions to be found anywhere along the front. The St. Gobain forest is almost invulnerable while the hills north of the Aisne further fur-ther south, lend themselves admirably to-defensive operations. East of Oeuil ly where the new crossing of the Aisne has been made further ground has been gained north of Berry-au Bac. In tho Champagne and Argonne sectors sec-tors the Kriemhildo line, built by the Germans to he the ultimate defense of the region, appears to be broken and the Americans and French arc storming through it on each side of the Argonne forest. Americans Strike German Lines WITH THE AMERICAN ARMY NORTHWEST OF VERDUN, Thursday, Thurs-day, Oct. 10. (By tho Associated Press) 9 p. m. American forces struck the German lines just east of tho Argonne forest today. They captured tho vil- lages of Sommerance, Chevieres audj Marcq. I The ridge of Dame Marie was stormed storm-ed after hard fighting. More than one thousand prisoners were taken. These include one colonel and two battalion staffs. Fighting opened this morning with the Infantry sweeping through the northern portion of the forest for a maximum distance of nearly five miles. Little opposition was encountered from the enemy who had probably retired re-tired during the night tp escape from the untenable pockeL formed by the American flanking movement on Monday. Mon-day. Americans Near Grandpre At two o'clock this afternoon the Americans were in Marcq and Chevieres, Chev-ieres, having taken the La Folie farm and the Richard farm and advancing on the Negeraonl woods, the only piece of fore&t land between them and Grandpre. Half an hour later they had captured Sommerance and had advanced north of that village. By this attack the Americans have taken a firmer grip on the territory juat north of the broken brok-en Kriemhilde. Although there were detachments of machine gunners and infantry to bo mot, tho Americans found that the German artillery fire was very light. They had little difficulty in advancing and, found extensive use of their own artillery unnecessary. Fires were causod by. enemy shells at Fleville and: Chevieres |