Republican farmer., 1918-09-20

oH LHe I11nueHDuIS 1lHe, every lllCH O1 the ground is being disputed stoutly by the enemy Apparently the Ger mans are determined to hold the pla- teau, which lies west of St. Quentin, south of Francilly, east of Savy and north of Dalton.
 The Allied lines, however, are sure ly advancing toward the outskirts of St. Quentin from the south, west and north.
 With the French Army in France, Wednesday, Sept. 1S---General Man gins army attacked along the front northeast of Soissons today and cap tured the Colombes farm in the pla- teau east of Sancy and south of the point where the Chemin des Danes branches off from the road leading from Soissons to Laon.
 A strong counter attack led by Grenadiers of the Prussian Guard was repulsed by the French, who drove the enemy back of the road leading from the plateau of Ange Gardiene to the Colombes farm. This road is less 1 than half a mile from the Chemin des l Danes.
 This success drives deeper the wedge south of the Hin3enburg posi- tions in the St. Gobtin region and fa- cilitates operations in the direction of Pinon.
 | The fighting in this region has been most severe during the last few days. | Prisoners now are complaining that they are frequently left in the front line to shift. for themselves. Rarely do their officers stand by them when they are attacked, they say. It often happens that machine gun crews are ordered to hold positions and discover some time afterward that the troops behind them have abandoned the field They attribute the concealment from them of the retreat of the infantry to the fear entertained by their officers that they might be tempted to aban- don their posts if they knew that they were to be sacrificed
 London. Sept. 19, via Montreal Correspondents at the front empha size the stiffening of the enemy re sistance. making yesterdays British advance all the more remarkable,
 An important feature of the ad vance is that the British have no merely passed their old line of Marcl 21, but have attained their greates fQuentin canal which virtually Is al Quenin canal, which virtually Is al integral part of the Hindenburg line runs three or four miles underground This tunnel begins near Bellicout ant ends near the village of Le Catele Lempire heights commanding tn tunnel, now is largely in Britis1 hands, and the Germans at this poin tanks by flooding the country.
 With the British Forces in France Sept. 19.-An assault delivered by tn Australians at Il o'clock last night | the center of the Vilieret sector force the Germans back to strongly fortife defenses in the rear.
 Furious enemy counter attacks de livered at numerous places along tn line late yesterday resulted in san guary fighting. In every case tn Germans were thrown back and thei losses were exceedingly heavy.
 More than 300 prisoners includin 13 officers, were taken by the Brftisi Forty guns and many machine gur and trench mortars also were captuI ed
 With the Ameriuan Forces in Lol
 raine, Sept. 19-(By the Associate
 Press) s)-Entrenched in the secon
 lines of the Hindenburg system tt
 Germans along the front southwest (
 Metx the employing wholly defensiN tactics, carrying out a seemingly pc functory bombardment of the Amer
 can line Even challenged by Amer
 can and French patrols are refuse
 except where conflict is inevitabl