The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1917-10-04
VICTORY GREATER
THAN AT VERDUN
Fearful Losses Inflicted on TeutOns
at Chemin des Danes by
the French

French 'FRONT.' Correspondence of
the Associated rPess).-To say 81
come from the battlefield of the
Chemin des Dame"-the Ladies' Road
stamps a French soldier in the pop
ular mind of today as hero. Verdun
had seized the popular imagination
owing to its position as the door thru
which the Germans hoped to break to
reach the heart of France. Even the
battle of Verdun, in which the French,
by their long suffering determination
to resist, succeeded in thoroughly de-
feating the Germans, is considered
by some observers a lesser operation
than that of the Chemin des Danes,
whose possession means the command
of the great road to the north by
which the Germans must retreat
The outcome of this great battle
has at the date of writing not been
finally determined. All that the cor
respondent of the Associated Press,
who has followed the operations very
closely, can affirm is that the French
after their first capture of the fam
result ftheir offensive begun on
April Is, have been able to hold all
their gains, to inflict almost unbeliev-
able losses on the picked troops of
the crown princes army and to resist
successfully all the furious counter
attacks of the Germans.
During the months of April, June,
July and August the fighting has been
incessant. In the first attack by the
French, when they started their of
fensive on the Aisne, about 10000
German prisoners and 200 cannon
were captured. Since then attack has
followed attack, either from the
French or the Germans, and when the
total of these operations is summed
up the result is shown that every four
days during four months there has
been a battle on a more or less exten-
sive scale. The net result of these
fights is that the French today hold
all they gained at their first assault
The Germans have utilized on this
front forty-nine divisions. which have
been sent in to the combat and with,
drawn when exhausted-that is to
say, when a division has lost itn cas-.
ualties at least 1000 men. This gives
roughly on the German side 196,00(
casualties among the front line troop:
without taking into account the killed
and wounded caused by the extremely
heavy artillery fire directed on the
lines of communication in the rear
in the period since the first French as
sault on April Is. This is almost dou
Bile their losses before Verdun during
the similar period of 1916, when Sc
we're fighting was going on there.
The character of the fighting OIL
the Chemin des Danes is totally diff
ferent from that at Verdun. At Yer
dun it was always possible to retir
without great disadvantage for Ger
tain distance-which may be calle'
the manoeuvring area-owing to tn
nature of the yround with its suches
sive ranges of hills and intervening
> valleys. On the Chemin desDames
has been necessary to hold on, fo
! shodld either side retire for NOR
. than a few feet the other side game
, the advantage of the observatorie;
permitting a close watch over all tina
went on in the adversary's line:
There are here no definite lines Q
trenches, no fields of barbed wire an
no shelters, and the two adversarie
are always open to sudden inroad
{ and have to fight hand to hand to hol
: their positions.
n The crest on which the Chemin de
iDames runs is like a knifeblade e