The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-10-10
Fight to Victory Thru MOrass
of Mud and Rain.
Both British and French Sc
cured Objectives Planned.
FRESH TROOPS MOVED DOWN
German Division Reaching
Front Finds British There.
1900 PrisOners-Teut0n Casu-
aIties Extremely Heavy.

GUM, Tuesday, Oct. 9-(By the Asso-
ciated Press) The blow struck by
the British and French forces today
against a wide section of the German
defenses between the Houtholst for
est and Broodseinde has resulted in
another great success. over much of
this front the attacking troops swept
forward to depth of 1900 yards or
more, overrunning many important
/ strongholds of the shattered enemy.
This afternoon the allies were digging
! in almost on the outskirts of Hout-
| hoist forest, the British were beyond
Poelcappelle after sanguinary hand to
| hand fighting and further south they
| gained the Passchendaele ridge with
| in less than 1000 yards of Rasschen-
daele, thereby wrenching away almost
all that remained to the Germans of
their famous Passchendaele-Gh
| Welt ridge system of Notifications
Again the German losses have been
great and reports from all along the
line indicate that their organization
and morale were hit hard 1t has
| been another wonderful performance
| on the part of the allies and the vic
/ tory has been more remarkable be-
| cause of tremendous natural difficult
Ties TO the advance. The rain of the
iast two days had turned much of the
| backgrounds into morass thru
winch the French and. the men of the
british empire floundered knee deep.
TOW they could make their way for
Ma[u over such ground, much less
| HSht over 1t, is the amazing thing.
| Advance Was Unexpected.
This very fact, undoubtedly contrib
| uted to the days triumph for German
| prisoners say nobody on their side had
thought the allies would advance I'M
DER such condition. The appearance
J OF the mud covered allied troops COM
/ n n faF h
| man INES apparently unnerVed the
enemy. They surrendered in large
| numbers in many places, or ran away
as fast as they could. The Germans at
tempted one counter attack of consid-
| cradle size. This was astride Ypres
| Roulers railway ana was smashed by
| the British artillery fire.
AS in the battle last Thursday,
! large body of Germans was caught I'm
awares and virtually wiped out. An
entire German division, the 27th was
| brought up during the night to re-
lieve the division in the line between
| Poelcappelle and the Houtholst forest.
| The men were transported in motor
| lorries from Roulers and arrived at
| the advanced positions about O'Clock
! this morning. They were ignorant of
! the nature of the country and when
| caught in the attack some two hours
| later they were bewildered and put up
| little resistance.
The attack was launched as dawn
was breaking. The French army on
| the left flank of the British were fac
ing probably the worst section along
| the line, as the ground over which
! they had to advance was interlaced
| with little streams and the rain had
| turned the ground into a bog. The
| French pushed forward rapidly, how
| ever, reducing numerous German pill
| boxes and redoubts, and had accom-
| plished all they had set out to do by
10 o'clock. This meant that they were
some 500 yards beyond Mangelaere
and almost at the edge of the Houth-
DIST forest.
March II Hours, Then Fight.
In the region of PoelcappelIe the
forward line was held thinly by the
Germans and except for the fight in
the town itself, the British had COM
paratively little difficulty in breaking
thru.
The advance on the Passchendaele
ridge involved the capture of many
redoubt positions. A small party of
British troops who Joined in the at
tack in this section had marched
eleven hours thru the deep mud and
water before they reached their as
Sembly line. During their journey
they fell into shell holes full of water
and often had to pause to pull one
another out of the. boggy ground.
Half an hour after their arrival they
went over the top and fought gal
lantly. The story of the fighting in
this section is much the same as else
where, the Germans apparently being
demoralized and offered little resist
ance-
One temporarily disconcerting feat
ure was encountered as the troops
neared the neighborhood of the town
of PasschendaeIe The British shell
fire had not destroyed all the trees
here and the Germans had mounted
machine guns in them. From these
nests the enemy was able to worry
the advancing troops, but ultimately
the gunners were cleared out
It was from this section that a
wounded British soldier came back to
a clearing station this morning lead
ing a youthful German prisoner. The
young German had shot the Tommy
thru the arms as the latter advanced
The German was about to follow this
up with a bayonet thrust, but Tommy
pushed the steel aside and made his
antagonist a prisoner.
Encounter Block Houses.
Heavy casualties were inflicted on
the Germans by the preliminary bonn
bardment and during the fighting. All
an early hour the French reported the
capture of several hundred prisoners
and also that their own losses were
light. The northern flank of the Brit
ish attack had to cross the Boenbeek
river and much mud and water was
encountered The troops, however,
negotiated the crossing without much
| delay. The region was studded with
concrete redoubts and the embank-
ment of the Ypres-Staden railway
furnished cover from which the Ger
mass could work their machine guns
to advantage. The other redoubts gave
little trouble, but several near the rail-
way northwest of Poelcappelle put VI
strenuous resistance. There was heavy
fighting at Koikut, north of LANCE
marck, where there was a nest of re-
doubts For the most part the Ger
mans in this region surrendered with
out making strong resistance.
Some of the hottest work of the day
| occurred in the town of POeIcapDelle