Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1918-10-15
Advance in Champagne.

Having cleared out the old Laon salient and made advances northwest in Champagne which are menacing the retirement of the Germans east ward toward the Valenciennes- Meg ieres-Metz line, General Foch has or dered a drive in the Lys river region of Flanders toward Ghent which threatens to break entirely the grip of the Germans in Belgium all the , way from the frontier to the coast
 and likewise to eliminate the big
 bulge in the line with Lille as it's
 apex
 While the latest official communi-
 cation Field Marshal Haig announces
 that only local actions have taken
 place in the new theatre and that
 prisoners have been taken in the fighting, dispatches from headquarters
 assert that Roulers has been captur-
 ed and that Courtrai, the junction
 point of the railway Heading to
 Ghent, has been outflanked. 1 The French troops alone are said
 to have taken 5000 prisoners, while
 the Belgians have captured several
 complete batteries and guns and num- erous prisoners. Just how wide the new front of at tack is has not become apparent. It ! is stated that the new advance has
 brought the allied troops within range
 of the enemy coast defenses but that
 the guns from them have offered z no
 opposition. a Offer Opposition. N: Meantime to the south the Germans
 are offering stiff opposition to the
 British southwest of Valenciennes
 and on the Solesmes sector in an
 endeavor to prevent the closing in of the Lille sack and the capture of this important town and also Valencien-
 nes, which are in precarious positions if a pincer movement gets we'll under way.
 At last reports the Germans were still falling back from the region of
 Laon, that town and the entire St. Gobain massif being in the hands of the French.
 In Champagne the French have been enabled to make further cross ings of the Aisne and to materially better their front eastward, not withstanding the stoic defense of the enemy who realizes it is of the great est importance to hold back the French and American driving north ward as breach in the southern line and a swift advance would imperil the entire German force inside the sack from the Disc river west of Flavigny to SissoA, east of Laon. Probably the greatest resistance of all is faced by |the American on both sides of ahe
 Mouse river.
 Vicious Attacks. Vicious counte rattacks are being delivered at the men from the United States, the fierceness of the assaults indicating that fresh forces have been brought into the fray to halt their do- or-die efforts to proceed up the river valleys and thereby compel the Ger mans, in case of retreat to wind their way obliquely northeastward in- stead of eastward toward the German border.
 Concentrations of artillery are being made against the American positions at various places.
 Gas shells are not being spared by the enemy in his efforts to hold the Americans in check.
 All the counter aatacks fthe Ger mans thus far have been withstood by General Liggett's men, and the American artillery is answering the German guns, shot for shot: Eday. The enemy refinement was car ried out in good order.
 He left liatle material behind, and |dn no sense was his movement hur- ried retreat.