Connecticut western news., 1917-04-12
GREATEST BATTLE
 OF WAR IS RAGING
British and Germans CappI8
 on Fifty Mile Front.
CiNsDlAGS PUSnlNG AHEAD

Teutons Rushing Up Reserves to Hold
 Endangered Line, While British Con-
 tinue to Attack ceaseiessly-eieantio
 Counter Attack by Hindenburn's Lo-
 sions Expected at Ypres or Rheims.
 Inferno is loose on the west front. a thousandfold more hellish than that which Dante viSualized. yet il is but the prelude to the twentieth century battle expected by many to he the last bloody war in the world war in which Britons and Teutons are grappling.
 Upon a fifty miles front-from Lens down to the gates of St. Quentin-they are locked in the supreme struggle for mastery. The British after thirty-six hours of steady smashing ahead are still the masters of the initiative. still rictoriously rushing on in .ceaseless storming waves, ripping wider and wider gashes into the Teuton wall of steel and1ron. In the fore are stlll the Canadians, heroes of Vimy. ridge, the capture of which made possible the Dig push" now under way.
 Germans Rushing Aid.
 But everywhere the Teuton backbone Is being stiffened by endless columns of reserves rushed to the endangered lines. They did not break through the German war office announced. though admitting heavy losses to two divisions-40,0O0 men. But Sir Doug. las Halg is determined to break through. The crisis Is at hand Hin. denburg's strategy is still playing a waiting game. Within forty-eight hours he must show his hand.
 More than 5000 prisoners, more than forty guns, were the captures so far counted up. 1t Is estimated that more than 12,O00 prisoners and nearly n hun dred guns will be recorded, the figures covering the operations since the Brit. ish drive began.
 Expect Drive at Rheims.
 Fighting continues throughout the whole battle front" says the official report.
 Three possibilities loom up:
 There are more signs of German in- tention to launch a powerful offensive between Rheims and Verdun, either in the region of the Cathedral City itself or in the Champagne, relying on the firmness of the defense lines consider. ably behind the positions under British assault. The French war office has or- dered the evacuation of Rheims by the civilian population. The city has been under a steady Teuton shell rain for many days.
 There is the possibility of volun- tary German retirement from the Lens St. Quentin front, with the eventuality of taking up the strong front from Lille to Laon. Even the most optimistic experts are puzzled by the swift crum- bling of the Teuton defense of Vimy ridge. Here the French in 1915 lost 100000 men in vain assaults, the Brit ish later lost 66,000 when they tried to take Lens from the north.
 The consequences of British break through" That would mean the re- tirement of the German armies from all of France.
 "Yankee Doodle" Heard. r
 Yankee Doodle Came to Town" the town" being Vimy ridge, for that was one of the tunes to which the Canadians SlOTlueu tue HOElHeTl euu ol lne DhS- tion of the German defense" while their comrades cleared the eastern slope of struggling Teutons. There were many other American tunes, mostly ragtime, mingling with the roar of the guns.
 The Germans did not let go of Vimy ridge without dogged resistance. "Se- we're fighting" it is described in the British headquarters statement -a and that usually implies severe losses on both sides. But for Vmy ridge no price has been regarded too high.
 This powerfully fortified range of heights, between 400 and 800 feet alti- tude, towers over the broad plain south of Lens and west of Douai. Down into this plain the British-the Canadians in the fore-fiowed, battling tooth and nail, with Teutons defending every yard tooth and nail.
 Meanwhile other British contingents extended the push to the northward, taking the village of Fampoux and neighboring defenses north and south of the Scarpe, some three and a half miles northeast of Arras