Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-06-12
hounds of TeutOns
Carpet Battle Hills
Continued from Page One

Continued from Page One
Poilus say, gray-clad corpses lie heaped
up as though they had been collected
for a gigantic funeral pyre. and more
than once the advancing enemy was
screened from the defenders fire by a
rampant of his own dead.
The general situation of the battle
has changed little. In the center the
French have retired slightly. On the
left also there is = southwark bulge in
the line. The right is still held by a
wooded massif above Drelincourt.
From that hill rampant 400 or 500 feet
above the Divette valley, which it
dominates almost perpendicularly. your
correspondent looked a few weeks ago
On the right the towers of Noyon
Cathedral could just be seen. To the
left smoke blaze marked Lassigny. half
hidden in a hollow. 1t was a natural
fortress with an infinity of cover for
guns. men and ~maChine-guns against
which no fury of sacrifice might pre-
vail. Well may the Germans try to
turn that grim salient by a advance
further south in the center-clearly
their immediate objective. They held
II once before last years retreat and
they know its strength.
Is I returned from the observation
post | passed through a great natural
amphitheatre in a sort of mountain. At
one side the had carved a
huge eagle. colored blood red, on a slab
or rock above a grCtto that had been
their headquarters. Beneath 1t in Gothic
letters was the Brandenburg motto,
On, Brandenburg, on The artist who
designed the bird that is the symbol of
German violence was well inspired. The
] L. -@.s- - 49, a1@ttAl
and stained from beak to claw with the
crimson of countless sla ughters.
Two Sides Nearly Equal
The latest information from the bat
t~lefront emphasizes still more clearly
the difference between the results of the
new German method of attack when APP
piled on a weakly held sector and a
front where the Allied strength is nor
NAL. on two previous occasions Hin
denburg's storm divisions gained sensa
tional success right from the outset by
literally swapping small forces by sheer
weight after the defenders had been half
stunned by the terrific bombardment to
which their inferiority of artillery per-
mitted no adequate response.
Conditions are very different today.
In the first place, there was no strategic
surprise-the German move in this Sec
tor had been foreseen. The utmost vigi
lance was everywhere maintained. and
unmistakable signs such as the move
ment OF troops. conveys and artillery
registration had been carefully noted.
Precautions to meet the shock had been
taken. Against attack in depth by sue
c~essive waves a depth defense had been
planned, with n front line of thinly held
outposts to minimize loss, and success
sire lines OF greater strength extending
back for kilometers.
When the German artillery storm
broke out it was answered by a perfect
hurricane of French fire. Not only was
every possible point where the enemy
troops might advance or batteries be
hidden thoroughly registered. but artil-
lery held IN reserve had its guns raine
on targets offered further in the rear of
each hill, wood or valley that the enemy
might assail as a vantage point or me-
dunn for infltration.
The consequences has been that in
direct contradiction to the former drive,
the enemy's initial losses have been
enormous and his gains small and the
French losses were greatly decreased.
Above all, there has been no penetration
Of the line OF resistance. In places it
bulged slightly under pressure. but only
at the price of the most logged fighting
and heavy sacrifice. and withal very
slowly. one fact marks the difference
sufficiently:
On May 81 the Germans had reached
the Aisne-seven kilometers from the
starting point, across difficult country
four and one-half hours after the at
tack, In the first thirty-hours of the
present attack they had barely passed
thinly held outposts. Along the whole
thirty kiIometer front, from the Disc to
acknowledgements shorter than
the area of bombardment-ffteen to
twenty a~ssaulting divisions were met by
a calling machine-gun barrage and the
terrible IT'S" fire curtain from quick
firers and batteries. Irrepiaceabie storm
troops. whose training had taken months
and whose existence was essential 10
the continuance OF ~Hindenburg's new
August sun,
Epic Mt Plemont
At Plemont-the scene of one of the
most gallant actions in the checking OF
the March drive by the men of the same
army-the Germans met a stubborn
resistance. though their dead lay there
thick as fresh cut wheat. but a few hun
bred yards beyond the line of outposts.
Even in the center. where the enemy's
progress was deepest. an unbroken line
of defense was constituted by the same
troops hat had withstood the attack
rom the beginning. Their spirit and
numbers were still sufficient, though the
Germans opposing them had sent for
ward fresh storm troops in wave after
wave.
The battle is not yet won. There will
be hard and bloody fighting, and ground
will be given n anxious moments are
20 be faced. But its first days have
JUSTIFIED the allied confidence, justified
F'och's tactics. and justified for the
t~housandth time the unrivpled Astting