The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1917-10-10
Modern Miracle Performed by Carpeting
Flanders Lakes With Great Islands
Built of Cork.
IMPORTANT VICTORIES FOR THE ALLIES
Desperate Counter Attacks Show Teutons
Realize How Serious Their Position
in Flanders Now is.
[By Henry Wood, United Press Staff
Correspondent

| [By Henry Wood. United Press Staff
| Correspondent
WITH THE FRENCH ARMIES IN
FLANDERS, Oct. 10.-Charging over
flooded fields, "bridged" by great
chunks Of cork held together by barb
ed wire, fighting amid roar of wind,
rain and gun fire. the men of France
reclaimed Belgian ground held by
the Germans since 1914.
France worked modern miracle
to make her soldiers literally walk on
the sea in achieving the great victory
| in this battle Of the inundauon.
Feverishly working in deluge OF
rain, French engineers. carpeted the
great barrier of water which was Nc
| Mans Land in Flanders with great
islands Of cork. They built miles q
trestles and countless bridges. !!
was over this mo mans water" thai
the French swept on to victory
Today the desperation of the Ger.
man counter attacks told of the en-
| emy's realization of what the French
and British victories mean. The
Teuton command threw fresh divis-
ions into the Flanders maelstrom with
unparalleled prodigality. That the
Germans should sacrifice 30 many
thousands of her troops when her
high command Is now faced with a
steadily waning man power, is proof
of the immense Importance in which
the enemy holds the Franco British
success.
The Germans know they cannot re.
treat without abandoning the F1and'
ers coast. That means abandonment
Of the great submarine bases-cur-
tailment of the submarine campaign.
Every yard they are compelled to
yield in Flanders makes relinquish-
ment Of these bases that much near
er Moreover the British victory
took from the enemy the dominating
heights and observatories controlling
all the Flanders plains. The French
successes was restoration to the al
lies of land heretofore held by the
Germans behind the inundated sec
tion flooded by Belgium in 1914.
Fleeing before the invaders at the
start Of the war, Belgium invoked
natures waters to flood the plains to
stop the enemy. But they also have
since constituted the greatest OBJ
stacle to liberation of Flanders.
Tuesday mornings attack had beel
long planned The French, however,
had not prepared to fight nature as
they were forced to- fight. At the
moment of the attack it seemed as
though nature herself had joined
against the French. Torrential rains
sent down a deluge of water which
linked the whole semi-inundated wild
erness, shell holes. streams, valleys,
canals, marshes and rivers into a
veritable sea. Whether the French
soldiers awaiting all night for the ad-
vance, or the Germans awaiting the
attack suffered the most from the
torrents, having no shelter either
above or below the ground, it is i'm
possible to imagine.
1t was certain, however, that the
French artillery superiority wiped
out any equality which nature con-
descended to give the Germans.
l saw this battle of the elements
fire, earth, water and air-Monday
night before Zero" the moment for
the attack.
At one spot the most dense artil-
lery concentration of the war caused
the entire Flanders plains as far as