The Climax-Madisonian. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1914-1917, 1915-09-29
ALLIES SWEEP
TEUTONS BACK
German Line Broken by Crush
Ing Blow.
$4,000 PRISONERS TAKEN
Great Victory Of Allied Armies Second
to That Of the Battle Marne-Ter-
rIfIo Fire Paves Way For Attack
Forced Back Miles In Places.

Paris. Sept 27.-Following an un-
usual heavy artillery preparation the
French troops have broken the Ger
man line in the Champagne district
on a front OF about fifteen miles, driv-
ing back their opponents to points al
most on their second line positions,
nearly three miles to the rear. More
than $4,000 prisoners have been cap
tured and large amount OF war ma
terial taken.
Paris is unusually gay after long
weeks and months of anxious waiting
for good news from the front. The
early reports indicate that the battle
Of Champagne is only second to the
battle of the Marne, and 1t is hoped
that its results will be as farreaching.
It is believed that during these long
weeks OF waiting General Joffre has
stored up sufficient ammunition for a
prolonged offensive.
At two other points on the long
front from the North sea to Alsace, Of
fensive movements have begun. North
of Arras the French, while not gain
ing the amount of territory captured
In Champagne, have taken at the
point OF the bayonet, several strongly
fortified positions In which the Ger
mans have held out for many months,
particularly the cemetery and town OF
souchez and important earthworks
northeast of Neuville-St Vast.
In conjunction with these success
full attacks the British under Sir John
French took the Offensive east OF Yer
nelles and Grenay, south of the La
Bassee canal, and succeeded in driv-
ing back the Germans on a front of
more than five miles, penetrating his
lines at some places for a distance of
more than two miles. The village of
Loos was captured, while the British
reached the western outskirts of the
village of Hullach, which lies a short
distance to the north.
Another, and no less important Of
fensive by the British was not so suo-
cessful. This was a general attack
on the German positions along the
Ypres-Menen road. South of the road
the British carried the German trench
es over a front Of six hundred yards
North OF the road the British captured
the Belle Ewarde bridge, an impor-
tant position, but were compelled to
give It up in the face Of an unusually
strong counter-attack
The highly successful attacks by the
French forces, it is freely admitted
here. are the beginning of the general
offensive as long awaited. Military
critics have pointed out that tremend-
Gus artillery work that has been q
feature of the war Office statement for
the last three weeks was in prepara-
ton for an important movement.
After an artillery preparation the
magnitude Of which has never been
equalled, not even in the Austro-Ger-
man campaign in Galicia, the German
trenches In Champagne from q point
north of Souain as far east as the
Argonne forest, were reduced to O
mass Of earth and tangled wire Huge
masses Of French troops leaped for
ward to the assault. The German
first line trenches had been obiiter-
ated and the advancing French dashed
through as far as the third line trench
es. Large numbers of the Germans
who endeavored to hold their posi-
tions were cut on and captured. This
accounts for the unusually large num-
Der Of prisoners taken, q number es-
timated by the war office as more than
10000.