Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1917-05-02
German Officers Ordered
to Hold Line at Any
Cost to Troops"
STRONG TRENCHES CAPTURED
Positions Taken Bristle With
Machine Guns; Heavy Ar
tillery Battling.
BY a STAFF CORRESPANDENT
of the Associated Press.

GRAND QUARTERS OF THE
FRENCH ARMY ON THE FRENCH
FRONT, April 30 Evening THE
Germans were forced to engage in
battle again today along a front ex-
tending between six and seven ,nilcs
to the eastward of Rheims. The
French attack was delivered from a
short distance southwark of Beine to
Moronvilliers. Notwithstanding the
difficulties of the task confronting
them the French at the end of the
day had won n tactical victory and
captured considerable territory altho
most obstinate fighting continued on
ground strongly fortified and offering
every advantage to the defenders.
Reserves Fail Germans.
SO serious was the French advance
that at one period OF the day the
Germans were compelled to throw into
the line another of the few remaining
| divisions of their strategic reserves
! but still could not stay the French
| progress.
The correspondent of the Associated
Press passed Sunday night on the
| battlefield observing the artillery
preparation for the attack which pre-.
scented one OF the wcrdest OF sights.
| Even the brightly starit sky did not
| permit one to observe the outlines of
the objects aimed at but thruout the
night dozens of French batteries
cleverly concealed poured out an in
cessant stream of shells against the
German positions and gun stations.
Airmcn Come Close.
Meanwhile the location of the Ger
man and French front lines could be
| defined in consequence Of the con-
stant succession of flares on each side
| lighted to reveal any possible move
ment OF the enemy infantry. Overhead
1 could be heard at "A low altitude the
whrring motors Of German airplanes
| trying vainly to locate the French
/ batteries
The German airmen evidently dis
! appointed over their unsuccessful
search for batteries went off to bonn
bard the open towns of Chalons and
! Epcrnay.
| When the French infantry attack
began at 12:40 O'Clock today the
French line passed from just north OF
the Roman road near Prunay. thru
the Bois de Ia Grille and along the
crests of Carnillet and Mont Haut to
Moronvilliers. In the west and the
center the French advanced rapidly.
but on the wooded mountain slopes
the fighting was harder and the Ger
mans counter-attacl<ed frequently
with French troops at one point re-
gaining a section they had lost only
to be driven out OF it again later on.
Gain Five Hundred Yards.
| The French staff at the close of
the day recorded a gain amounting to
something more than five hundred to
u thousand yards, and this in ground
interlaced with powerfully organized
trenches bristling with machine guns
and strengthened here and there with
blockhouses and redoubts.
Possession OF this range of crests
by the French menaces the German
positions at Nogent LAbbesse and
Berru. from which the bombardment
/ of the Rheims cathedral has been
carried out.
The German guns today relaxed in
! the punishment of Rheims in order
to help defend the German positions
where the French attacked.
Orders IL to Hold.
A secret order found on the field
of battle, addressed to the command
er of the Thirty-third German reserve
brigade. warns German officers that
the first line must be defended at all
costs. and If lost the fighting must
continue until 1t is rewon.
Indications show that the strength
of the German forces totalled on the
first of April 219 divisions. each COM
prising a maximum of from ten TO
twelve thousand combatants. OF these
divisions, l43 faced the French and
British, but only SO were in the actual
line, the others being held in =
strategic reserve. The remaining 16
divisions were then on the Russian
Rumanian and Macedonian fronts.
Many Of the strategic reserve divisions
have since been thrown into line. and.
owing to losses, were later sent to the
,nnr fr,r. rncnnsf = FL L. ion