Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-10-05
NO GERMAN POSITION
NOW CAN HALT HAIG
British Haze Proved They Can OUercome MtghtIest
Defense Lines That Enemy Kno,cs
HOiU to Build
By PHILIP GIBBS

the Forty-sixth. Sixty-sixth, Eighty-sev-
cnth and Ninety-slxth Reserve Infantry
regiments. while south Of them the Thir-
ty-fourth German Division, with scrap
ings from depots and offices, cook houses
and camps. were hurried up to coun-
ter-attack our men when they were
exhausted after long fighting
SO, for some hours. the German re-
sistance has been stiffened and they
have been able to keep us in check.
II cannot be for long, I imagine. be-
cause there Is no doubt the enemy is
in desperate straits for reserves strong
enough to make IA firm stand. and what
1 saw today Is real proof that there are
no lines ahead of us now which our
men cannot break II they have the fresh
ness and numbers and are not used up
by too long period OF fighting. for
men who captured the further bank Of
the Scheldt Canal can take anything.
and because the Germans could not hold
this line, they can hold no line.
| went along a great length of it to-
day. and was astonished that our men
could get across with such little loss.
1t has steep banks 90~to 100 feet high
on each side of the canal. cutting high
and dry by Bellnglise, but with five
or six feet or more of water twenty
yards wide between that village and
Bellicourt. Some miles away, when it
goes into the tunnel. 1t is perfectly pre-
pared for defense with communication
trenches leading from the lower ground
beyond to high banks, where machine
gun and tield-gun cmplacements were
having a perfect field of fire should any
men be rash enough to advance over
the ridge to the western bank. our
nCh oh nd
canal are bridges of planks on which
they passed and, in the water, RATS on
which they floated.
"rhe old boche ought to have defended
n position like this to the crack OF
DOOM said one of our officers this morn
ing, and, indeed it was only the mar
vclous courage of our men, favored by
the dense white fog which achieved this
crossing of the Scheldt Canal. In time
of peace it must have been a pleasant
place, with steep banks clothed with
underground and by long straight vista
of water, which goes suddenly into the
hillside.
None of Yser's Horror
Even now it has none of that grim
horror which haunts the Yscr Canal
and some of the Australians there to-
day hauling buckets of water to the
crest of the high banks seemed to be In
n picnic mood and sang as they worked
though there was bloody fighting just
up on the left by Gouy, and German
shells were crumpling the neighborine
4. ground and there was n bald sky, more
prolonged and more intense than any
thing | have seen since the fighting in
Flanders last year.
German airmcn were audacious and
| some of their best fighting scouts were
out above the Sheldt Canal watching
our activities and preparing for any new
menace preparing against them. our all
patrol challenged thcm to single fights
and Journeys. or dog fghts.'' as oui
| flying men call them without romance
| and there was constant chatter oi
| machine guns overhead and the nois'
of many engines, and our squadrons
came sailing up and more hostile air
craft appeared from the clouds.
From behind the British lines, many
| thousands of men stared up at this
| sky battle and there was furious work
! by our antiaircraft guns. one after an
other. in less than two minutes, two air
! planes came crashing TO earth-poor
| broken things. out or one a body fell
! swaying so lightly that | think It must
have been fastened. to a parachute, but
I the other fell like a rocket.