Arizona republican., 1917-12-30
FRENCH SUMMARY FOR YEARS 'SFIGHTING
 ON WEST FRONT

FRENCH FRONT. Dec. 29.-(COr-- | respondence of the Associated Press)- One million casualties have been suf- | fered by the German armies along the front occupied by the French troops l during 1917, according to statistics carefully compiled here. French ter ritOry amounting to many hundreds of square miles has been freed from Ger man domination by the years fighting and the German Crown Prince hreder- ick has been compelled to suffer the modification of leaving between 5000 and 10000 prisoners from among his best troops in French hands. His can non to the number of 1400 have been captured, and, in addition. thousands of machine guns and hundreds of trench mortars.
 Although the defeated Germans did their utmost before withdrawing to turn the fertile fields and picturesque villages of the Somme and Aisne regions into a desert waste, these acts of vandalism did them more harm than it did the French, whose soldiers were | stirred thereby to an even stronger i determination than before to beat back 1 the German invader.
 l Three dominant events on the-front 1 of the French armies in France have marked the year and each has termin- l ated in a brilliant victory for French ] armies. First came the enforced re- treat in March of the German forces from the greater part of the depart ments of the Somme Disc and the l Aisne, brought about by the combined smashing blows delivered by the | French and British during the battle ! of the Sonlme in the fall of 1916
 Then followed the French offensive on the Aisne and in Champagne, whose conclusion came only at the end of seven months of almost continuous fighting with the capture from the crown princes armies of the key of the Hindenburg position formed by the Fort of Malmaison and their reluctant retirement from the famous Chemin des Danes This left in the French hands all the good observatories useful for future operations.
 In the meantime the French had fought and won the eliminating battle
 for the liberation of Verdun, in the ; course of which the French troops re- gained nearly every inch of the ground around the fortress which it had cost
 the crown prince 500,000 men to cap ture in 1916
 Aviation played a leading part in all operations in the course of the year. No matter what weather prevailed. the
 atrmen were out observing. reconnoit-
 erins, fighting off German airmen. ac.
 companying the attacking invader l bombarding the communications and | depots of the enemy or making raids on German towns This latter, although | they effected only such towns as were | used as military centers, were made by
 way of reprisal for German air at- | tacks on French cities in the east and
 north, where numbers of French civil
 lans had fallen victims to German bombs
 In aerial combats the French avia- tors undoubtedly proved themselves
 masters of their German adversaries | By the end of October, the last con- plete return available, French avia.
 tors had destroyed in ten months 51, II German alrplanes whose fate it wa.
 possible to confirm with certainty. Be.
 sides these they had brought down an. | other 5l3, the absolute destruction O
 which could not be confirmed bu
 which had been seen to fall out of con.
 trol with a great possibility of a. fata
 crash.
 | These figures totaIling 103O make al
 excellent record and to them must b.
 added 22 German captive balloons The American aviators of the La
 tayette squadrilla who have now bee
 incorporated in the American army
 played a very creditable part with thei
 French comrades in the conflicts in tn
 air Several of them lost their live
 Tn 1917 as did three of the best know
 French airmen, Guynemer. Dorme an
 Lenoir.
 T. Besides the bombardment of Frenc
 open towns, German airmen on sey
 eral occasions bombed French fiel
 hospitals at Dugny, Vadelaincour
 Chateau Petit Monthairon and Belrup