The Sentinel=record., 1918-07-18
BATTLE NARR0WS DOWN
 TO LESS THAN 20 MILES
Reports Indicate That the Germans in Crossing the River Stand With Both Hanks Exposed and Their Commu- nieatng Line Seriously Menaced.

Washington, July 17.-,While official reports from Generals Pershing and Bliss were too belated to permit for nal conclusions to be drawn today by military authorities here as to the sit uation along the front where the Ger man offensive was still beating against American, French and Italian defend CTS, it was clear they read press ad- vices as indicating the crisis was Irassed and the enemy's plans frus- trated.
 Secretary Baker would not express
 an opinion today as to what was to be expected in France.
 General March, chief of staff, de- ferred a mid-week conference with newspaper correspondents, on the ground that his official adyices would not permit him to go very far toward
 making clear to his hearers just what is transpiring at the front.
 Apparently both Generals Pershing and Bliss are observing great caution in formulating their reports. Among officers generally it was obvious the battle was regarded as more than half won.
 As press accounts and the brief of ficial communiques from Paris and Berlin have so far disclosed the situa-
 ton, the great thrust starting over a sweep of more than sixty miles, has
 been narrowed down in three days fighting to only one active sector
 where the enemy still was moving sluggishly, at last accounts.
 Sharp counter assaults by Franco American forces in this sector indi- cated, it was thought, that still fur ther restriction of the active line was to be expected.
 Officers agreeing with views, ex- pressed both in France and in London today. that the great offensive already has degenerated into a purely local action on a front of less than twenty miles. This sector lies between the point just east of the original Amer
 ican positions on the Marne in the Jaulgonne sector to the wooded region west of Rheims. It is possible the
 activity of the Germans In the woods on the left will result in flanking movement at Rheims itself, but of ficers were not inclined to think so. The center of interest was the F mile stretch on the south bank of the |Marne, which the enemy holds and his thrust down the river valley to- ward Epernay.
 Even here, however, the Germans |have been able to force their way some four miles beyond the river line at the point of deepest penetration and their crossings upon which the
 maintainence of the forward lines and the continuance of the push down the |valley depends, were reported to be under direct artillery fire. At best their progress is painfully
 slow, it was pointed out, in an action where some twenty picked divisions |of storm troops fresh from month of rest and special training are known definitely to have been engaged and many of them badly shattered. Aside from the possibility that later
 advices would show that the German
 war machine had been gotten into mo- l ton again after having been begged
 down by the fierce resistance of the
 French and American troops, officero looked with particular attention at the very hopeful prospect of a count er
 stroke which they believed might
 have important results.
 It was still indicated by today's re- ports that the Germans have crossed