The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-10-26
Teutons in DemOralized Retreat
Across Marshy Valley.
Heaviest Loss They Ever Sus-
tanned in Single Battle.
ARMY OF $4,000 WIPED OUT
Advance on 7-MiIe FrOnt-NOW
s Miles From LaOn.
Tanks, Artillery and Airmen
Open Way for Infantry.
BY HENRY WOOD.

With the French Armies in the
Field. Oct. 26.-With every hour today
there grew evidence that General
Petain's stroke on the Aisne had in
flicted on Germany her greatest de-
feat of 1917
Demoralized by the trip hammer
blows of the great French war ma
chine, the Germans today were aban-
doning their guns in an effort to re-
treat across the Inarshy Ailette valley
and the Aisne and Disc canal Fight
ing with the desperation of men who
know they are beaten. the enemy gave
way for the French wedge until today
it had been jammed more than three
miles into the pivotal base of the Ger
man line curving around the western
extremity of the Chemin des Danes.
Take O,OOO Prisoners.
Total captures of men reached more
than ten thousand. More than 100
guns have been taken so far Sew
eral hundred trench moruars and ma
chine guns are not included in this
count.
Judging from prisoners stories and
an estimate of the mangled heaps of
German dead, the German losses in
Tuesdays drive and Thursday accel-
mated at equivalent to three whole
German divisions - approximately
AS, 900 men.
In proportion to the size of the bat
tie front-seven miles-this is the
heaviest loss which Germany has ever
sustained in a single series of military
operations since the disastrous Ger
man retreat last spring.
Not only that, but the French vic
tory is a cumulative one. Poilus now
. L Law
Their hold on the observatories here
practically. renders untenable the Ger
man lines along the northern edge of
the bloody Cheinin des Danes all the
way toward Craonne, far to the east
Battle Thunders On.
Today the battle thundered on, the
enemy apparently seeking to make a
stand on new lines opposite to the
| heights of the Ailette.
How great was the jar to German
army morale when Hindenburg S
troops felt the impact of Petain's
/ pivotal blow was evidenced in a
score of proofs today. Like a boxer
struck a staggering blow on the jaw,
/ the German army machine reeled
/ backwards, its mind confused, every
sense of apprehension attuned to the
| keeneSt point and then with muddled,
! befogged comprehension strove blind
! Iy to cover up
/ That "grogginess'' was evident in
! hasty abandonment of guns 1t was
I even palmer in confused orders taken
from captured officers.
One officer captured near Pinon,
carried orders to abandon his four
mortars His major-taken at the
same point-had exactly contradictory
| Orders-first to retreat; secondly to
| resist regardless of cost" Six hun
dred prisoners taken at Pinon evil
dence this decentralization of the
! orderly German military brain thru
Petain's staggering blow
Advance More Than Three Miles.
The Germans had not even thought
of a defeat at the Corner of their
line where the French struck. Their
lines were ''impregnable." When those
''impregnable" positions melted be-
fore the French fire, the demoraliza-
ton must have been sudden, dramatic
and of bitter relish to the German
high command.
The new advanced French line to-
day was an average of three and a
tenth miles beyond Mondays positions
over total front of practically seven
miles. Consolidation of these lines to-
day swept more and more German
positions into the pOilus' hands
France has already reoccupied the ter
ritory between the Monkey mountafr
and Pargny, capturing the villages o1
pi1on PargDV and E'ilai11