The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1918-04-04

tionaI protection to their left flank.
From Albert south to Montdidied
there has been a slaw movement to
the west, but the hills west Of Mont
didier are still being held by the
French. No ground has been made
against the French along the south
ern side of the salient driven into
the allied lines, while it is asserted
that the French counter-attack from
Lassigny to Noyon is still going on.
The extreme depth of the German
wedge now is about thirty-seven
miles. Meanwhile, the allied world
is awaiting for the Entente forces to
strike back at the Germans.
SUNDAY.
French troops are now meeting
the shock of German attack on a
twenty-mile front in what may de-
velop into the most important battle
fought since the start of the offensive
ten days ago. Foiled at Arras in the
attempt to take that place from the
British, and disorganize the northern
British line, and finding themselves
able to advance only step by step at
great cost, in their thrust along the
Somme toward Amiens, the Germans
Friday turned southwark and hurled
masses upon the French in the Mont
didier salient.
1t is here, from Moreauil, ten
miles northwest of Montdidier, on a
curving line around the latter place
and eastward to beyond Lassigny,
nearly fifteen miles away, that the
battle was raging at last accounts.
Violent assaults were delivered upon
the French lines, which developed
powerful resistance.
The initial force of the impact,
however, was sufficient to drive the
French back short distance at and
near, the point of the salient. Push
ing westward from the branch of the
Avre, which runs in northwesterly
direction from Montdidier, the enc
my forced his way into several vii
lagos. The advance, as shown by the
locations of the villages announced
as captured, reached a maximum of
about three miles in this sector.
South of Montdidier the wedge also
was further driven in about two miles
Fighting at this point, around Ayen-
court, was still in progress late Sat-
urday in a heavy rainfall.
MONDAY
The American army in France is
to fight shoulder to shoulder with the
British and French troops engaged
in the titantic struggle with the Ger
mans in Picardy. Gen Pershing's
entire force has been given into the
hands of Gen. Foch, the new general
issimo, who is to use the men where
he desires.
More than 100000 Americans, in
tensively trained and fully accout-
cred, are available for use in aiding
to stem the tide of the German
hordes and loads of them, on rail-
road trains and in motor trucks, and
even afoot, are on their way to the
battle front, eager 20 10 their part
in defeating the inv aders. /
The miserable weather which has
broken over the country is proving
no deterrent to the Americans as
they push forward from all direc-
tions toward the battle zone.
In the region of the Somme, south
ward to where the battle lines turn
eastward, furious fighting has con-
tinued on various sectors, but every
where the enemy has been held and
even pushed back at some points.
Nowhere has he been able, although
uS CUutlu uSu W LuAOW S1CoI moSo0S
of men into the fray, to gain ground,
except an infinitely small tract from
the French north of Moreuil. British
and French machine guns and rifle
men, as in days past, again tore
great holes in the ranks of the field
gray as they endeavored to press on.
So great have been the losses of the
Germans in front of the British north
of the Somme, that Sunday saw them
unwilling again to take up the gage
of battle. Along the Scarpe the
British themselves went on the Of
fensive, and to the east of Arras cap
tured the, village of Feuchy. On the
southern end of the line, where Won
Hindenburg is endeavoring to pierce
through to the old German positions
as they stood before his retreat in
1915, the British and French trops,
fiohfino fopether have met the enc