Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1918-10-03
CUT CASH IN HUNS Line

British Penetrate Eight Miles, Threat
ening Terrible Disaster TO the in
vaders.
London, Oct. 3.-The Germans are
retreating on the 20-mile front be
tween Armentiers and Lens, Field
Marshal Haig announced today. They
are evacuating highly organized posi-,
tions which they had held since tbs
beginning Of the trench warfare.
The retirement already has reached
a maximum depth of two miles, and
the British advance is continuing
Progress made by the allied Of
fensives in Flanders and before Cam
brai and St. Quentin, combined with
the losses incurred by his troops in
their endeavors to resist the success
full allied attacks, has compelled the
enemy to undertake an extensive with
| drawal," the statement said.
"The retirement was not ui.gxpect-
ed. We already have rea ched tine gen.
eral line of Cite st. August, Douvrin,
east of La Bassee, east of Aubers and
west of Bois Grenier. The advance
continues.
yesterday evening the enemy at
tackled north of Cambria. He was re-
pulsed, leaving prisoners.
"This morning we renewed our at
tacks north of St. Quentin"
London, Oct. 3.-A cash nearly
eight miles wide was cut into the Hin
denburg line between LIE Catelet and
the region east of st. Quentin by the
British yesterday. For several hours
terrible disaster threatened the Ger
mans. Their main line of resistance
had been preached between Fonscare,
five miles northeast Of st. Quentin,
and Beaurevoir, nearly three miles
east Of LIE Catelet. Through this
breach Haig's forces threatened to
pour into the rear and force a cave-in
of the whole German Western front.
Then, toward noon, Ludendorff,
aware that it was one of the decisive
hours of the war, gave the order for
one of those old-time massed counter
assaults. in observation-disclosures.
for naught, where the only thing that
matters is to fill the gap, even if it
must be filled by corpses.
Whether the gap was definitely fill
ed is not yet certain But the reckless
slaughter did succeed in keeping the
British from pouring through.
The British, Field Marshal Haig adj
mitted last night, were pressed back
from Sequehart, which lies on the:
southeastern part of the line preached;
five miles and half northeast of
ST. Quentin. !;
But the desperate eleventh. hour.
measure cost Ludendorf more than
the mountains of dead piled up in the
temporarily stopped gap. In the bloody
counter thrust he had to use up every
ounce of flesh available in that sec
tor, and as the very order for. the at.
tack wassgiven, he had to cast anxious
gIances up and down the far-fung,
wabbling German front for men to
take: the;plaqes of those offered to The
British fire.
Soon afterward his decision became
manifest. All the way between the
Meuse and the North Sea there was
but one sector that had not been .ripp-
ed to pieces in the last few weeks
the one between Armentieres and
Lens. On that seventeen-mile- front lay
his only hope for re-enforcements.
The answer is contained in Haig's
night report:
"The Germans. are withdrawing on
wide front south and north of La
Bassee Canal" 1
This means that Vimy Ridge, that
formidable, natural bastion, for which
so many thousands of Teutons and
Britishers have died, is to ;be aban-
doned, probably without fighting, as
was Mount KENNEL and Passchen-
daele Ridge. It'means a saving of un-
told casualties for the allies.